With over 300 days of sunshine a year, New Mexico residents are used to waking up to the warmth of the rising sun. However, as the rest of the world also heats up, many environmental experts are worried about increasing temperatures impacting the nation’s water supply.
In Albuquerque, those concerns have yet to reach a boiling point. It’s a feat many water and development experts attribute to the area’s slow growth, coupled with a $450 million investment the city made in the 2000s to support future demand.
But with surrounding cities like Phoenix and Denver starting to feel the impact of increased growth on its water supply, the questions become: Does Albuquerque have a water advantage? Or is the Duke City one growth spurt away from joining in these Southwest struggles?
Investment in San Juan Chama project
New Mexico’s State Engineer, Mike Hamman, said that $450 million investment — the City of Albuquerque’s San Juan Chama project — has helped to preserve “groundwater for future development.” The project addresses Albuquerque’s depleting aquifers by transferring and treating surface water from the Colorado River Basin to the Rio Grande Basin.
Although construction on the San Juan Chama drinking water project did not begin until 2004, investigations into alternatives for importing Colorado River water into the Rio Grande for use by Albuquerque were underway as early as 1924, according to a 2019 report by the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA). Construction of the project finished in 2008.
The City of Albuquerque contracted with the federal government in the early 1960s for water from the planned project, which would divert water from tributaries of the Colorado River for use by communities in New Mexico, said David Morris, communications director at ABCWUA.
“The assumption was that some of it would seep through the riverbed and help recharge Albuquerque’s aquifer,” Morris said. “After a USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) report in the mid-1990s showed that the aquifer was under stress, city leaders, including ABCWUA COO John Stomp, began considering the possibility of directly diverting San Juan Water for drinking.”
Thus, to better prepare for future population growth, city officials approved a permit for the San Juan Chama project in the early 2000s that allowed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to transport water from the Colorado River into the Rio Grande via a system of diversion dams and tunnels. The project diverts water from three upper tributaries of the San Juan River (Rio Blanco, Navajo River and Little Navajo River). Upon diversion, the San Juan Chama water is transported under the Continental Divide to Willow Creek where it is stored in the Heron Reservoir.
As of today, there is 93,395 acre-feet of water stored in the Heron Reservoir, which is considered “very low” and is 41% of normal levels, according to Snoflo research.
After it’s released from upstream reservoirs, the water travels to the Rio Grande and is then diverted for treatment at a facility near the Alameda Boulevard bridge, Morris said. The water is then pumped through a $160 million treatment plant that purifies the water for distribution into the community, according to the ABCWUA website.
Despite its intentions, critics have worried the project could impede the state’s ability to satisfy its water delivery requirements to Texas under the 1938 Rio Grande Compact. A concern that is now waiting to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the last 25 years, Albuquerque’s conservation efforts have reduced the city’s per capita water usage from 250 gallons per day to 125 gallons, Morris said. The San Juan Chama project, now the biggest source of drinking water, has also reduced groundwater pumping by more than two-thirds, he added.
“The more San Juan Chama water we can use, the more water stays in the aquifer,” he said. “This provides a rebound of the aquifer over time.”
And while these conservation efforts might have bought Albuquerque time, New Mexico as a whole is one of the driest states in the U.S., which means the topic of water will continue to intensify. In the coming weeks, months, and honestly, years, Albuquerque Business First plans to dive into the water conversation as its impact on business is set to rise.
Source: “After a quarter-century of conservation, does ABQ have enough water to grow?“
