A Grand Opening ceremony on Dec. 5 marked the completion of the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project, which will make surface water the metro area’s primary drinking water source for the first time. The ceremony included transmission of the first purified surface water into the Water Authority’s distribution system, which serves about 520,000 people in the metro area.

"Water is the lifeblood of our community," said Deanna Archuleta, Chair of the Water Authority Board. "The San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project ensures that it will keep flowing for generations to come."

The Project, some 45 years in the making, will end dependence on an overtaxed aquifer by tapping into surface water transported from the Colorado River basin via the San Juan-Chama Diversion Project. In 1963, Albuquerque city leaders (including then-City Commissioner Pete Domenici) contracted for annual rights to a portion of this water, which descends from the southern Colorado highlands and eventually into the Rio Grande via a series of pipelines, tunnels and reservoirs.

The City of Albuquerque proposed use of the water for drinking after scientific studies in the early 1990s showed that Albuquerque’s aquifer – once thought to be virtually limitless – was smaller than originally believed, and being pumped twice as fast as nature could replenish it. But switching to surface water would be no easy task.

“It took $400 million in new infrastructure to divert the water from the Rio Grande, treat the water to safe drinking water standards, and transport it,” Archuleta said. “This called for a real commitment from the community and our customers, who were asked to pay for the Project via seven dedicated rate increases.”

Among other things, those rate increases paid for:

• 38 miles of distribution pipeline (some of it underneath the Rio Grande itself).
• An adjustable diversion dam and intake structure on the Rio Grande.
• Funding of programs to preserve the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow and its habitat, and inclusion of fish screens and passages at the diversion site to minimize Project impacts on fish populations.
• A Raw Water Pump Station on the Rio Grande, built to resemble a Spanish mission church the better to blend in with its surroundings.
• Eight miles of raw water pipeline to transport water from the Raw Water Pump Station
• A $160 million Water Treatment Plant. The new Treatment Plant, which will eventually purify about 90 million gallons per day, uses a series of chemical and mechanical processes to remove sediment and other contaminants from the water. It employs the same treatment process now in use by such communities as Fresno, California and Tampa, Florida.

Ratepayer dollars also were used to fund an ongoing conservation program. Permit requirements for the San Juan Chama Drinking Water Project call for an eventual reduction in Albuquerque’s per capita water usage to 155 gallons per day. Current usage stands at about 165 gallons per day, down from 252 gallons per day in the early 1990s.

Project construction, which began in 2004, was completed in 2008. Pipeline construction wrapped up in April of this year, and the Water Treatment Plant was finished in November.

John M. Stomp III, Water Resources Manager for the Water Authority, explained the final steps in bringing the Project online. “Now that testing is complete and necessary state permits are in place, we will begin putting treated surface water into the distribution system,” he said. “We are planning a 25-percent surface water blend to start, with a gradual ramping-up over the course of 2009. Eventually, we will be drawing between 70 and 90 percent of our drinking water from the river.”

Stomp said it may take some Water Authority customers as long as 30 days before they start receiving the new water, depending on where they are in the distribution system.

“It’s a change, but the new water is of the highest quality and will continue to meet or exceed state and federal standards for safe drinking water,” Stomp said. “It represents the best choice we have for ensuring our water future. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the leaders, past and present, whose vision made this project possible.”

For more information on the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project, please click here.