Buckman water diversion facing temporary shutdown
Rio Grande’s levels may dip too low, but official says Santa Fe should be OK
The Rio Grande’s water levels are expected to dip low enough to force a temporary shutdown of the Buckman Direct Diversion for the first time in its 10-year history.
A weak snowpack and light monsoon have failed to dent the yearslong drought that is now depleting the Rio Grande, from which the Buckman operation diverts and treats water for the Santa Fe area.
Since it opened in January 2011, the diversion has never had to shut down due to critically low river levels, but the trend is pointing to having to suspend operations sometime before October, said Rick Carpenter, the Buckman facilities manager.
“I think probably we will,” Carpenter said. “But nobody knows. We’re all just making our educated assumptions about how we’re going to manage the river.”
The city of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County jointly own the Buckman Direct Diversion. Las Campanas, an upscale subdivision, is a limited partner.
The diversion would be closed for two to eight weeks, Carpenter said.
That wouldn’t be a problem because the area has ample alternative sources, he said.
More water could be drawn from the area’s wells, which became strained when they were the main water supply but have recharged since the Buckman Direct Diversion came online, Carpenter said.
The city has eight wells along the Santa Fe River and 13 wells in the
Buckman Well Field near the diversion, Carpenter said. And if necessary, the city’s Canyon Road Treatment Plant can pull more water from the Nichols and McClure reservoirs.
“So it’s not like we can’t meet demand,” he said.
The Buckman Direct Diversion’s operations would be suspended if the Rio Grande’s flow dropped to 200 cubic feet per second, Carpenter said,
because water could not be diverted from a river that low.
It was at 700 cfs as of Tuesday morning, he said.
Much of that higher flow is from the Middle River Grande Conservancy District releasing water so farmers in the region can irrigate, Carpenter said. But in the coming weeks, the conservancy will start running low on water amid peak farm demand, and river levels are likely to plummet, he added.
When irrigation season ends in October, the decreased water demand from growers will help restore river levels, Carpenter said.
Last winter’s snowpack was average until January. Then snowstorms faded and temperatures warmed early, resulting in an insufficient amount of spring snowmelt to offset a prolonged drought, said Randall Hergert, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.
The runoff from melting snow mostly was absorbed into the dry soil and didn’t flow into rivers, Hergert said.
The summer monsoon has been “disappointing” for water replenishment, with only some rains in the first week of July, he said. And not much rainfall is forecast for the next two weeks, Hergert added.
“If any improvement is really going to be made in terms of reservoir levels, it’s going to take several seasons of good snowpack and good monsoon seasons,” Hergert said.
Last winter’s snowpack was average until January. Then snowstorms faded and temps rose.