FAQs

The estimated construction cost is $217 million. To date, the BDD Project has received $17.45 million in grants and $15.80 million in low-interest loans from Federal and State agencies. The City and County are each paying 50 percent of the remaining construction costs, less the grants and loans already received and less the $11.24 million that is Las Campanas’ share of construction of raw water facilities. Las Campanas does not benefit from federal and state grants or low-interest loans.

Once the BDD Project is operational, each partner will pay a proportional amount for the share of water used.

The Buckman Direct Diversion Project will be able to deliver up to 15 million gallons per day of treated drinking water to City and County water system customers, which is about the same as the current daily maximum water demand of existing City and County customers. On an annual basis, the BDD Project will provide as much as 1,700 acre-feet of drinking water to Santa Fe County, 5,230 acre-feet of drinking water to the City of Santa Fe and 1,800 acre-feet of untreated water to Las Campanas. Normally, the BDD Project will operate at about one-half of full capacity.

The San Juan-Chama Diversion Project is very important to the BDD Project, because it provides the annual total of 5,605 acre-feet of water that they already own the rights to, which are about two-thirds of the allowable annual maximum water diversion for the BDD Project. The San Juan-Chama Project water is renewable, and is from a very reliable surface water resource.

The Design Build contractor, CH2M HILL/Western Summit Joint Constructors, has divided the BDD Project into phases. As of September 2009, construction was on schedule and on budget. Some 26 miles of finished and raw pipeline had been completed, with the contractor beginning work on the diversion structure and raw water facilities and continuing construction on the Water Treatment Plant. Construction began in September 2008 and is scheduled to be completed in spring 2011, with the project operational by spring 2011.

Yes, although temporary detours may be required for construction of the diversion structure and raw water facilities. Visitors are asked to use caution in and near the BDD construction zone so that everyone can stay safe.

The Buckman Direct Diversion Project is owned by the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County.

Yes. The BDD Project will produce excellent quality drinking water that complies with all safe drinking water standards based on a water quality protection strategy including the quality of the Rio Grande raw water; reducing storm water pollution; an early notification system to stop diversion from entering the BDD treatment plant; and an advanced drinking water treatment process beyond those commonly used elsewhere across the nation; and timely and transparent monitoring results. Water quality has been, and will continue to be, the central focus of BDD Project design and operations. For more information, please visit Water Quality

The EPA sets national drinking water standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act and regulates compliance with those standards. In New Mexico, drinking water quality is administered and enforced by the NMED Drinking Water Bureau. Together with the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (NMWQCC), NMED sets detailed water quality standards for rivers, streams and groundwater and enforces those standards with the federal EPA. Currently, water quality standards require testing for 95 contaminants, including microbial, disinfection by-products, inorganics, organics and radiochemical contaminants. BDD Project drinking water will be better than required by all applicable safe drinking water standards.

Yes. Raw and untreated Rio Grande water at the site of the BDD Project currently meets water standards for radionuclides such as those of California and Colorado that are 100 times more stringent than current federal drinking water standards. The BDD Project Board supports more stringent water quality standards for the Rio Grande near Santa Fe and Los Alamos proposed by the NMED's Triennial Review of Water Quality Standards. NMED’s Surface Water Quality Bureau has adopted more stringent water quality standards for the Rio Grande at Buckman. These proposals address several LANL contaminants carried in storm water runoff. For more information, visit the Water Quality-Surface Water Quality section of this website.

The BDD Project is confident that its water quality protection strategy will ensure BDD Project drinking water that is better than all federal and state safe drinking water requirements. Studies have shown that the Rio Grande almost always has water quality that will comply with the most stringent standards advocated for contaminants of LANL origin. However, the BDD Project Board and Staff must be certain that storm water runoff from LANL is managed and regulated to ensure contaminants are contained on LANL property and do not reach the Rio Grande. There is an on-going need to establish the proposed more stringent river quality standards and criteria so that agencies and consumers have an official benchmark for their interpretation of water quality information in the future when the Rio Grande becomes the main source of Santa Fe’s public drinking water supply.

The BDD Project City/County Water Treatment Plant includes both conventional and advanced treatment processes for treating surface water diverted from the Rio Grande. These processes include, but are not limited to:

• Oxidation through ozonation
• Absorption through Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) contactors
• Biological degradation through ozonation with Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) contactors

These are some of the best available technologies for removing an array of pharmaceuticals and personal care products as well as EDCs that may generally be found in the Rio Grande; however, studies of the Rio Grande suggest the risk of these contaminants is very low.

Each year, the City of Santa Fe Sangre de Cristo Water Division publishes an annual water quality report for its customers to notify them of testing for water quality as required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In addition, the EPA publishes some local drinking water quality information on its website.

The BDD Project will frequently monitor and test both its untreated and treated water to make sure it meets or exceeds all state and federal drinking water standards. In addition, the BDD has voluntarily committed to testing the water more frequently than is required by either the New Mexico Environment Department or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The BDD plans to post all test results promptly.

Numerous scientific risk evaluation studies by a variety of state and federal agencies over the last seven years conclude the Rio Grande water and sediment at the BDD Project diversion site are free of LANL radiological contaminants, except during periods of high storm water runoff from Los Alamos Canyon. PCBs have never been measured at concentrations exceeding drinking water standards. The BDD Project Water Treatment Plant, which provides multiple and advanced barriers to these contaminants, has been designed using the most up-to-date and effective process for removing these contaminants and meeting all drinking water standards.

Many alternatives have been considered, but the BDD Project is the best choice as an additional source of drinking water for the Santa Fe region in the near-term for three main reasons: 1) the Rio Grande is the only source of sustainable water in the vicinity of the Santa Fe region; 2) the City and County already have rights to significant quantities of imported San Juan-Chama Project water that is available for diversion only from the Rio Grande; and 3) diversion from the Rio Grande at alternate locations as evaluated in the BDD Project Environmental Impact Statement would be more difficult or impossible.

NMED includes a bureau dedicated to oversight of the environmental protection programs of federal nuclear laboratories and facilities in New Mexico, including LANL. Called the DOE Oversight Bureau, it is funded by a federal grant. The DOE Oversight Bureau has helped the BDD Project confirm that its facilities next to the Rio Grande will be constructed in sediments that are free from LANL legacy contaminants.

The BDD appreciates and relies on the NMED’s oversight of LANL and its regulation authority, including consent order requirements that LANL construct structures to reduce erosion and transport sediment during storm events.

Yes. To begin with, the BDD Project Water Treatment Plant has been designed to include a series of both conventional and advanced water treatment processes and technology for removal of any contaminants that might be in the untreated water that is diverted from the river for treatment.

The NMED has ordered LANL to take steps to reduce migration of contaminated sediment transport down Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons to the Rio Grande and improve monitoring. Additionally, the EPA issued an NPDES permit to DOE/LANL requiring control of contamination and monitoring of LANL storm water runoff. This is the first permit of its kind.

City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County water customers have made our region a leader in water conservation and drought management. Total community water use has been reduced by 40 percent over the past 10 years, making our region one of the lowest water users in the Southwest. The BDD Project fully supports continued effective water conservation, and recognizes that conservation is required by federal and statement permits for the project. Learn more about City of Santa Fe water conservation programs and Santa Fe County water conservation programs.