WATER Is Our Well Running Dry?

New Mexico Business Journal, May, 2001

Water, it seems, is never quite where you want it, at least not in sufficient quantities. That's The problem facing many Western cities, including Albuquerque.

Waste not, want not, is a maxim

I would teach,

Let your watchword be dispatch,

and practice what you preach;

Do not let your chances

like sunbeams pass you by,

For you never miss the water till

the well runs dry

Rowland Howard

IN THE WESTERN STATES, THE pitched battles have been over water rights, which isn't surprising since the blessings bestowed upon this region of the country haven't included water--at least not in the right places. And without a convenient supply of water, economic progress can't be sustained, not to mention life itself.

Farmer and ranchers have always been keenly aware of the momentous issues surrounding water, or the lack of it. City dwellers, on the other hand, generally consider water to be the colorless liquid that flows endlessly from faucets to water lawns and gardens, fill pools, flush toilets and nurture industrial growth. But water is a complicated and, if you'll pardon the term, a sometimes dry issue among folks who don't think about it very much. It is past the time to be thinking about it seriously, however. If war is too important an affair to be left to the generals, as Churchill said, then water is likewise too important to be left to the bureaucrats.

Water issues affecting Albuquerque and the Rio Grande Valley, through which flows the state's only river of substance, are increasingly the subject of intense conversations among members of the business community since the extent of future growth is directly related to the extent of the future water supply. The New Mexico Business Journal recently visited with an acknowledged expert, John Stomp, the director of water resources for the City of Albuquerque, who responded with direct answers to some fundamental questions.

What is the city of Albuquerque doing to ensure the city has a safe, sustainable, predictable water supply?

STOMP: "The City Council adopted the Water Resources Management Strategy in April 1997 as the city's new water supply policy. The city's current sole source of drinking water supply is the aquifer. The aquifer underlying the city once was thought to be extensive enough to accommodate unlimited growth. In the late 1980s, however, a hydrologist with the city noticed that the water table was dropping much more rapidly than the State Engineer was predicting. That discovery led the city to cooperate on numerous studies with federal and state agencies to examine the available ground water resources in the Middle Rio Grande.

The results of these federal and state studies showed that the amount of high quality ground water in the basin was much less extensive, that water quality in the aquifer diminishes with depth and most important, that the amount of recharge coming from the river and mountain front was less than half of the amount the city pumps from the aquifer. These astonishing facts reshaped water resources policy and subsequently led to an extensive evaluation of 32 different alternatives to provide a safe and sustainable water supply The selected alternative includes a continuation of the existing city policy namely, the water conservation program and Ground Water Protection Policy and Action Plan. In addition, the strategy calls for the construction of three water reuse and reclamation projects and a drinking water supply project intended to transition from sole reliance on the aquifer to our renewable water resources (San Juan-Chama water). The drinking water project consists of diversion and full consumption of the c ity's San Juan-Chama water, purification at a new water treatment plant and pipelines to distribute the water. Implementation of the strategy will include an investment of $180 million in capital costs which will be paid through seven consecutive dedicated water rate increases. The first four of these has been approved by the City Council.

What progress has the city made in implementing this strategy? What's the current status?

STOMP: With the support from the administration and City Council, implementation of the Water Resources Management Strategy is moving forward rapidly The first water reuse and reclamation project, the North 1-25 Industrial Recycling Project, has been constructed and is currently operational. The feasibility studies and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance for the second (North 1-25 Surface Water Reclamation) and third (Southside Municipal Effluent Reuse Project) will be complete by the end of the year. Construction for the North 1-25 Surface Water Reclamation project will begin in June 2001. The Drinking Water Project is entering the final permitting phases. The diversion, treatment plant, and piping alternatives have been narrowed to three and we are currently preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) which will examine the impacts on the environment including endangered species. We will be holding a series of public meetings in January and February 2001 to solicit comments from the pu blic on the Drinking Water Project alternatives. The State Engineer's permit for diversion and full consumptive use of the City's San Juan-Chama water will be submitted in May 2001. Construction of the Drinking Water Project is scheduled to begin in Spring 2002. Ratepayers will be drinking purified river water in early 2005."