Human Use of the River and Bosque: Water Use
All municipal water systems along the middle valley currently use water from the underground aquifer for domestic and industrial uses, while river water is used for irrigation. Overall, in the U.S. and Mexico, about 80% of the water taken from the river is used for irrigation. Rates of ground water pumping by larger systems (primarily Albuquerque, and Rio Rancho) now exceed the river's capacity to re-charge the aquifer, so that the water table beneath Albuquerque has been greatly lowered. To accommodate its high demand for water, the City of Albuquerque plans to begin taking water for domestic uses directly from the Rio Grande by 2005. The City is legally entitled to a certain amount of river water from the San Juan-Chama Project. Completed in 1971, the project used diversion dams, conveyance channels and tunnels to transport water from the San Juan River Basin (part of the Colorado River Basin) to the Rio Grande Basin, where it is dumped into Heron Reservoir on the Rio Chama. The City is one of several entities that contracted with the US Department of Interior for this water, which is not subject to restrictions of the Rio Grande Compact. Currently, the water helps boost minimum flows in the Rio Grande. The impact that removing this water will have on the river and bosque ecosystems remains to be determined.
