The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority’s San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project will supply up to 70% of the metropolitan area’s future water. San Juan-Chama water diverted from the river will be transported to a state-of-the-art treatment plant, from which purified water will be delivered to Albuquerque area homes and businesses.

Under the Upper Colorado River Compact, New Mexico annually receives water from the Upper Colorado River’s basin for consumptive use. To bring this water into the state, federal legislation has authorized construction of diversions, conveyance channels, pipelines and tunnels, in addition to a dam (Heron Reservoir). The primary purpose of the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project is to provide water for the Albuquerque Metropolitan Area. City leaders have contracted for perpetual, or permanent, rights to 48,200 acre-feet of the water per year.

We are now moving quickly to begin using the San Juan-Chama water because our current system, which relies entirely on pumping groundwater from an underground aquifer, is being seriously depleted. Right now, only about 50 percent of the water pumped from that aquifer is recharged, or replenished. The rest is lost forever.

The San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project is one of six capital projects included in the overall Albuquerque Metropolitan Area Water Resources Management Strategy

These six projects are:

1) The North I-25 Industrial Recycling Project (Completed 2005)

2) The Northside Non-Potable Surface Water Reclamation Project (Completed 2005)

3) Southside Water Reclamation Plant Reuse Project

4) Drinking Water Supply Project
Will divert San Juan-Chama surface water from the Rio Grande and purify it for drinking. Includes new diversion facilities, pipelines, a pumping station, a water treatment plant, and transmission pipelines. (Pipelines scheduled for completion in 2007, Water Treatment Plant Scheduled for Completion in 2008)

5) Aquifer Storage and Recovery – Future project involving putting water into the aquifer, then pumping it out in times of need. Can conserve large amounts of water that might otherwise evaporate.

6) Shallow Groundwater Irrigation – Future project involving developing a sustainable water replenishment program in the Central Valley that will provide about 900 acre-feet per year of shallow groundwater for irrigation.