About the BDD
Who Gets the Water – And Where It Goes
The BDD Project is owned by the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County. Las Campanas is a limited partner. In the past and now, the City of Santa Fe furnishes water to all three partners.
The BDD Project will change that. The BDD is limited by federal permits to diversions of 8,730 acre-feet per year. The total annual capacity will provide:
- Up to 1,700 acre-feet of drinking water annually to Santa Fe County
- Up to 5,230 acre-feet of drinking water annually to the City of Santa Fe
- Up to 1,800 acre-feet of untreated river water to Las Campanas
Water Supply Amounts
The BDD Project size was selected in 2001 to provide a renewable water supply for the area’s projected 2010 customer population under existing climate conditions when used together with reduced amounts of groundwater pumping and water from the Santa Fe River. It is important to note that the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County have made our region a leader in water conservation and drought management. Due to major reductions in water use by City and County customers, the City will not need additional water supplies until after 2020. The County’s share of the BDD Project will satisfy its customers’ requirements for decades to come.
The Buckman Direct Diversion Project will be able to deliver up to 15 million gallons per day (MGD) of treated drinking water for City and County water system customers, which is approximately equal to the current daily maximum daily water demand of existing City and County customers. Normally, the BDD Project will operate at about one-half of full capacity. Annual water diversions from the Rio Grande are limited to 8,730 acre-feet per year, compared to total current water use of about 10,000 acre-feet per year.
The BDD Project is designed to deliver up to 3.2 million gallons a day (MGD) of raw, untreated Rio Grande water to Las Campanas at a location shown on the BDD Project map. Santa Fe County has approved a request by Las Campanas to become a County water customer, rather than pay for its own finished water treatment plant and pipelines. Under this agreement, Las Campanas would transfer its water rights to the County and would pay for a potable water storage tank, and a portion of the costs to build a pipeline to provide treated water from the BDD water treatment plant to its residents.
While there are no guarantees that the BDD Project will be able to provide its full water supply every year, technical studies indicate that the annual water supply should be available in most years.
How Water Rights Work – And Relate to the BDD
As a sustainable public water supply project in New Mexico, the BDD Project must have:
- Legal Rights to Water
- A physical supply of wet water to go with the legal water right
Legal Rights to Water
Legal rights include ownership of water rights or a legal contract right to the water. An approved permit from the New Mexico State Engineer to divert the water for beneficial use is also required.
The City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County have Bureau of Reclamation permanent contracts for 5,605 acre-feet per year of San Juan-Chama Project water. This will provide about two-thirds of the 8,720 acre-feet per year allowed to be diverted annually by the BDD Project.
The City’s share of the BDD Project (5,230 acre-feet) will consist entirely (100%) of San Juan-Chama water. Legal rights for the remaining share, about one-third of the BDD Project’s annual diversion limit, may come from native Rio Grande water rights or other San Juan-Chama water. Native Rio Grande water will be diverted under water rights transferred to the BDD Project from elsewhere in the Middle Rio Grande. Each transfer requires an application to and approval from the New Mexico State Engineer. Other San Juan-Chama water that is leased to or owned by the City or County or Las Campanas may also be available for part of the remaining one-third of the BDD’s annual diversion capacity.
Wet Water
New Mexicans know there may be a difference between paper water, which is the legal right to divert water for beneficial use, and real, wet water that is actually available at the point of diversion. The San Juan-Chama Project water contracted to the City and County will provide reliable water. Most of the native Rio Grande water rights the County and Las Campanas will transfer to the BDD Project were established by beneficial use of the water for irrigation in the Middle Rio Grande before New Mexico’s first water laws were established in 1907. The corresponding senior priority date and BDD Project location should provide a reliable wet water supply in almost all years.