Making headway on Pojoaque water system
Construction to help resolve decades of legal disputes, bolster area’s supply during dry seasons exacerbated by climate change
Asmall construction crew stood inside a giant cylinder jutting from a shallow pit as a mechanical crane lowered a metal piece into place. In the autumn sun, a worker fastened it onto the side of the structure.
The crew was installing a collection well at San Ildefonso Pueblo for the first phase of the Pojoaque Basin regional water system, which will serve several pueblos and hundreds of non-pueblo users in the corridor between Santa Fe and Española when it’s finished in 2028.
Construction began last summer on a water system that will help resolve a half-century of legal wrangling on how users should share the Pojoaque Basin’s finite water supply. Known as the Aamodt litigation, it was one of the country’s longest-running water disputes, dating back to 1966.
This is the first of three phases for an immense system that will pull and treat water from the Rio Grande to ease the strain on the area’s wells and streams and help ensure ample water supply to households amid the longer, drier periods expected with climate change.
Officials visiting the construction site Tuesday said they were happy to see work being done on a project that had been mired in contention and delays.
“So many have worked for so long to get this project started — and here we are,” said Brenda Burman, a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation commissioner.
Crews this week are doing a $12.5 million “limited construction” project that includes building two collection well chambers, installing some pipes and electrical lines and doing site work.
The system eventually will have a treatment plant, collection wells, storage tanks, pumping stations, 150 miles of pipelines and seven miles of electrical lines supplemented by a solar power system.
Initially, the project will supply 2,500 acre-feet, or roughly 815 million gallons, of water yearly. Officials hope to eventually expand it to 4,000 acre-feet, or 1.3 billion gallons, a year.
River water will be drawn into the collection wells and then pumped several miles to the treatment plant. From there, it
will be funneled to the various households.
The federal government’s portion of the project will cost $400 million.
The U.S. Senate recently passed a bill that would cover the building costs, and House leaders must act on the legislation before it the project moves forward.
Bureau officials said they are fairly optimistic Congress will approve the funding because the system is essential to pueblos and others in the region.
The treatment plant will take three to four years to build, said Jerry Nieto, the bureau’s project manager.
San Ildefonso Pueblo and the northern part of Pojoaque Pueblo could get water from the system soon after the plant is finished because they have pipelines already installed, Nieto said.
The water will become available to Tesuque and Nambe pueblos and the southern portion of Pojoaque Pueblo when the entire system is completed around 2028, Nieto said.
The city and county of Santa Fe have agreed to chip in a combined $115 million to develop the system. The pueblos, city and county spent a year negotiating over a funding gap, shaving about $15 million from their final costs.
The Aamodt water rights litigation grew out of concerns the basin lacked the water to fulfill everyone’s needs and rights, especially during droughts. Agricultural and household demands for water came into conflict.
Many households in the region rely on wells for drinking water and for irrigating gardens. A hydrological study determined pumping these wells sometimes reduced the flow of streams, which supply water to growers, both on and off pueblo lands.
Perry Martinez, governor of
San Ildefonso Pueblo, said he is glad to see even limited construction happening at the site.
The regional system not only will expand water supply, it will open up more water rights to fuel future residential and commercial growth, Martinez said.
“Our goal is for future generations, there will be a clean source of water,” Martinez said.