Water Line (the agency newsletter)
Rio Grande Water Users Rely on San Juan-Chama Project Water
BY KEVIN FLANIGAN, P.E.
San Juan-Chama Project Overview
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The primary purpose of the 96,200 acre-feet annual firm yield of the SJCP is to provide water for irrigation, municipal, domestic and industrial uses in the middle Rio Grande basin above Elephant Butte Reservoir. Project water also provides incidental recreation and fish and wildlife benefits. The SJCP is a participating project of the Colorado River Storage Project and provides a little less than 7% of New Mexico's share under the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact.
The SJCP water stored in Heron Reservoir is delivered to the Project's contractors generally upon demand. Contractors must take delivery of their annual allocation by the end of the calendar year, with some minor exceptions. In general, SJCP water must be fully consumptively used above Elephant Butte Reservoir, New Mexico's point of delivery to Texas under the Rio Grande Compact. A limited amount of SJCP water may be stored in Elephant Butte Reservoir.
There are 15 existing or anticipated SJCP contracts, plus the 1964 Congressional authorization for the Cochiti Reservoir permanent recreation pool, which account for the full annual yield of the Project (see Table). In addition, there is an allocated but as yet un-contracted supply of 4,990 acre-feet per year reserved for San Juan Pueblo (2,000 acre-feet per year) and the Taos area (2,990 acre-feet per year).
There are three types of SJCP contracts:
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In 1964 Congress authorized the creation of a permanent recreation pool in Cochiti Reservoir with a surface area of 1,200 acres, to be filled and maintained with SJC Project water. Approximately 50,000 acre-feet of SJCP water were made available for the initial filling of the pool. An additional 5,000 acre-feet per year, originally part of the City of Albuquerque allocation, were re-allocated to offset annual evaporative losses of the pool.
Some of the larger municipal contractors are in the process of implementing plans to begin diverting and consuming larger amounts of their SJCP water. In particular the City of Albuquerque is planning to replace its existing unsustainable groundwater-based water-supply system with a sustainable conjunctive-management strategy. In recent years, some contractors have leased or donated SJCP water to Reclamation. The MRGCD uses the leased SJCP water for irrigation and an equivalent amount of native Rio Grande water is left in the river for habitat needs of the Rio Grande silvery minnow.
Albuquerque
On May 18, 2001, the City of Albuquerque filed an application to divert its annual SJCP water allotment directly from the Rio Grande. The City plans to treat the surface water and deliver it directly to Albuquerque consumers. The primary motivation for implementing this costly strategy is to put the City's water supply on a sustainable footing. Albuquerque presently supplies its water customers with pumped groundwater. In the early nineties it became apparent that City pumping was effectively mining the Albuquerque aquifer, an unsustainable situation. State Engineer Tom Turney commended the City's direction at an Albuquerque Town Hall last April 20th, saying "Albuquerque is on the right track with its plans to use its San Juan-Chama water. Albuquerque needs to fully develop and use this water as soon as possible in order to protect it and reduce the City's unsustainable use of local ground water."
Credit Sought for Return Flows
Because Albuquerque returns about half of its diversions (groundwater pumping) to the river as treated wastewater, the City wants ultimately to divert twice its contract amount less conveyance losses (currently estimated as 1,200 acre-feet) between Heron Reservoir and Albuquerque (twice 47,000 acre-feet per year, or 94,000 acre-feet per year), and return half to the river through the treatment plant.
Aquifer Storage and Recovery
Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is another element of Albuquerque's Water Supply Strategy. The City hopes to recharge its depleted aquifer with surface water in wet years, while continuing to go to the pumps in dry years, to take the pressure off the stressed surface supply. The State Engineer's administrative rules for ASR are in place, but no application has yet been made.
Conservation
Conservation is an essential element of the Albuquerque strategy. Turney also commended Albuquerque's "extensive, effective, and multifaceted water conservation program. The City's 23% reduction in per capita water production over six years is excellent," he said, adding "Keep up the good work." Turney urged, however, that Albuquerque keep in mind that its goal of 175 gallons per capita per day may ultimately need to be lowered.
Santa Fe
The City and County of Santa Fe jointly contract for 5,605 acre-feet/year of SJCP water. Unlike Albuquerque, which has a perpetual "repayment" contract for its SJCP water, Santa Fe has a "water service" contract, which will expire on December 31, 2016. The State Engineer has urged Santa Fe to expedite the diversion, treatment, and direct use of its SJCP water as drinking water supply, and to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that this water will always be accessible to Santa Fe residents. Santa Fe's water supply is currently derived from McClure and Nichols Reservoirs on the Santa Fe River, the Buckman wellfield near the Rio Grande and the municipal wellfield. Santa Fe has taken the preliminary steps necessary to implement direct diversion of their SJCP allocation. Use of this sustainable surface water will reduce the depletion of regional groundwater. This is necessary as the population of the region, and the demand for water, continues to grow.
Buckman Well Field
Presently Santa Fe pumps about 40% of its water from the Buckman well field, located to the east of the Rio Grande about fifteen miles northwest of Santa Fe. The water rights associated with the Buckman well field total 10,000 acre-feet per year, subject to offset of pumping effects on the Rio Grande, the Rio Pojoaque and the Rio Tesuque. Reliance on the Buckman wells as a water-supply resource raises several difficult problems for Santa Fe:
The impacts of pumping from the Buckman well field on the Rio Grande and the Rios Tesuque and Pojoaque must be offset. At the present time Santa Fe (and Las Campanas, which contracts for a percentage of the Buckman yield) have enough water rights to meet the offsets for about eight more years on the Nambe-Pojoaque tributary.
Santa Fe does not have a perpetual right to offset continued pumping of the Buckman well field. Its service water contract with the Bureau of Reclamation expires in 2016.
Santa Fe Canyon Reservoirs
The rest of Santa Fe's municipal water comes from its surface rights in the Santa Fe River and the municipal well field. Santa Fe stores its surface water in the Nichols and McClure Reservoirs in Santa Fe Canyon, which have a combined storage capacity of about 3,940 acre-feet. Both are "post-1929" reservoirs. Under the Rio Grande Compact, if New Mexico is in a debit status under the Compact, and if the water in Elephant Butte Reservoir is below a given level, Texas can call for the water in "post-1929" reservoirs to be released to benefit storage in Elephant Butte Reservoir.
The State Engineer hopes for timely development of Santa Fe's surface SJCP contract rights for direct delivery, and has offered technical assistance to the City and the County to help this process along.
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