Why BDD?
Water Sources
Currently, the City of Santa Fe water system also supplies water to the Santa Fe County water system and Las Campanas. The system draws its water from three sources:
1 The McClure and Nichols reservoirs on the Santa Fe River
2 The City well field inside Santa Fe city limits
3 The Buckman well field near the Rio Grande river, north west of the City of Santa Fe
When reservoir water falls short, more water has to come from the City and Buckman well fields to meet demand. A more important long-term limitation is the impact of heavy pumping on the aquifer under Santa Fe, an interconnected aquifer of the Española Basin. This basin serves thousands of individual well owners in addition to local water systems. Groundwater levels near the City and Buckman well fields have dropped in recent years.
Where BDD Water Rights Will Come From
An acre foot of water is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land to a depth of one foot, which equals 43,560 cubic feet or 325,851.42 U.S. gallons.
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The BDD’s initial permitted capacity will be:
8,730 acre feet total per year
- 5,230 acre feet (60%) allotted to the City
- 1,700 acre feet (19.4%) allotted to the County
- 1,800 acre feet (20.6%) allotted to Las Campanas
Water rights are required to divert “wet” water through the BDD. Each project participant (City, County, Las Campanas) is responsible for obtaining its own water rights and getting permission from the State Engineer to have these rights diverted through the BDD.
So far, the State Engineer has approved the following:
Diversion through the BDD of 5,605 acre feet of San-Juan Chama (SJC) water allocated to the City and County. SJC water comes from the headwaters of the San Juan River in southern Colorado, travels through the mountains and tunnels to Heron Lake, and flows into the Rio Chama, which in turn carries to to the Rio Grande.
This includes 5,230 acre feet (93%) – the City of Santa Fe’s entire share of the project – and 375 acre feet (7%) allocated to the County.
The SJC water represents 64% of BDD capacity. The remaining 36% of water rights needed for the BDD to reach its full capacity will come from:
Other water rights already held by Santa Fe County and Las Campanas.
Water rights to be obtained by Santa Fe County and Las Campanas.
So far, the County and Las Campanas have:
Transferred an additional 13% of the water rights needed to the Buckman Well field.
Applied to the State Engineer to transfer another 6% of the water rights needed for the BDD to be at full capacity to be “parked” at the Buckman well field for later use.
The remaining 17% of water rights needed for BDD capacity will need to be filled by other water rights
How Much Water Are We Using Now?
In 2006, the City system delivered:
9,239 acre feet to its own customers.
348 acre feet to the County water system.
521 acre feet of potable (drinkable) water to Las Campanas.
Water Rights Will Be Used as Offsets
Not all of the Rio Grande water rights and San Juan-Chama (SJC) water rights
held by the partners will be used for diversion through the BDD. Some
rights will be needed to offset the effects of pumping at the Buckman
well field on the natural flow of the Rio Grande, because it reduces
the saturation under the river.
Rio Grande water rights and SJC water rights are currently being used to offset this reduction in river flow, and will continue to be needed in the future. Even if Buckman well field pumping were to end immediately when the BDD begins operations, some water would still be needed to offset the residual impact of past pumping of the Rio Grande.
Pumping at the Buckman well field also reduces flow in two tributaries of the Rio Grande – the Rio Pojoaque and Tesuque. These reductions are offset by water rights on tributaries owned by the City and Las Campanas. These tributary rights are scarce and expensive. One advantage of taking water directly from the Rio Grande through the BDD is that it will not impact the tributaries.