Why BDD?
Another Source of Drinking Water
City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County leaders are building a mix of water supply sources to ensure we can meet our water demands. The Buckman Direct Diversion (BDD) project will allow for use of all our water sources – The Santa Fe River reservoirs, the underground aquifer, and the San Juan-Chama surface water diverted and treated by the BDD.
Well at Buckman well field.
Current Sources of Drinking Water
Santa Fe River/Watershed (Runoff)
Precipitation (rain or snow) falls in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, creating
runoff to lower elevations. Runoff water is stored in the Nichols and McClure
reservoirs so that it is available to meet water demands throughout the
year. The City of Santa Fe owns and operates these reservoirs in the Santa
Fe watershed. The water stored in these reservoirs is treated to meet drinking
water standards at the Canyon Road Treatment Plant. In the last six years,
the annual supply from the Santa Fe River reservoirs has been as high as
5,040 acre feet in 2005, and as
low as 750 acre feet in 2002. Typically, the water in these reservoirs
meets only one-third of our demand.
Underground Aquifer
The City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County are on top of a major aquifer that
provides water through wells located in two well fields: the City well field
and the Buckman well field. Aquifers are rock layers that are saturated with
water. They are a natural underground storage area for water.
We are actually taking more water out of the aquifer than is being put back in over the long term. We must reduce long-term use of the groundwater to avoid permanently damaging the aquifer. By using other sources of water, we can allow the aquifer to “rest” and recharge (refill) as much as possible.
Water rights in the Buckman well field total 10,000 acre feet, but historical pumping amounts have been much less due to a variety of constraints. Water rights in the City well field are 3,585 acre feet, in years when the Northwest well is pumped.