Search for New Water Goes Deep

By Staci Matlock, The Santa Fe New Mexican

Sep. 30–Sandoval County is banking on a salty aquifer located more than half a mile underground to supply future water for a major new development and perhaps ease Rio Rancho’s water woes.

This new, deep source of water poses a regulatory challenge to the state engineer, who is charged with overseeing New Mexico’s increasingly precious water resources.

Under current law, brackish water found at least 2,500 feet below the ground — and proven unconnected to upper aquifers bearing potable water — can be pumped without a permit from the state engineer.

That loophole could help counties and developers struggling to find water. But State Engineer John D’Antonio hopes the New Mexico Legislature will change the rules during its 2008 session. In the last session, a bill that would have given him control over deep aquifers died on the Senate floor.

“I would like to get those basins declared so they have to get permits and we can monitor them,” D’Antonio said.

Until recently, the only entities punching wells so deep were oil and gas drillers. Water brought to the surface as a byproduct from those wells is monitored by the Oil Conservation Division in the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

There is evidence of a lot of deep, brackish water along the Rio Grande rift near the river, according to Sigmund Silber, who chairs the Technology Committee of the Jemez y Sangre Water Planning Council, which encompasses the city and county of Santa Fe.

For about four years now, his committee has been working on identifying alternative water resources, and deep, brackish water is one of the technologies they’re considering, he said.

“We have prepared a report (not yet released) on these technologies, and it includes a lot of information on deep, brackish water.”

Santa Fe County public information officer Steven Ulibarri said the county isn’t currently looking at drilling any deep wells for brackish water but wouldn’t rule it out as a potential future water source.

Sandoval County embarked on drilling deep wells in hopes of finding a solid 100-year water supply for Rio West, a proposed 12,000-acre development west of Rio Rancho that could provide housing and jobs.

The wells are within the Rio Puerco watershed, but officials believe the wells are so deep beneath layers of rock that they won’t have an impact on the Rio Puerco, a tributary of the Rio Grande.

Sandoval County drilled two exploratory wells in the last few months at a cost of about $4.3 million, development director Michael Springfield said.

One well hit brackish water at 3,400 feet and the other at around 5,800 feet.

The Rio West development needs an estimated 18,000 acrefeet of water for the 30,000 homes and industrial park envisioned, Springfield said. (One acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons or roughly the amount of water needed to cover one acre a foot deep.) One option was to buy surface water or groundwater rights within the upper aquifer and transfer those rights to the development’s wells, an expensive proposition at $15,000 to $30,000 an acre-foot.

The other option was to hunt for brackish, nonpotable water and treat it to drinking water standards. Springfield said, “We determined that was the most cost-effective was treating brackish water.”

The cost of treating the water will be determined by the size of the treatment plant and the amount of water pumped annually, said Springfield, who did not give estimates.

The county is setting up a 72-hour pump test for the wells.

“That should give us good information on what is out there,” Springfield said. “We’ve hit water, we know it’s saline. Now the three-day test will tell us how much is there.”

Rio West’s developer, Recorp Partners Inc., will then have to conduct a 30-day test to prove there’s enough water to last 100 years. Those tests should be complete by late November, Springfield said.

Meanwhile, two teams of geohydrologists — one working for the developer and one for Sandoval County — are monitoring test results. “They are looking over each other’s shoulders so they concur with any final report that goes into Office of the State Engineer,” Springfield said.

To avoid having to apply for a state permit, Sandoval County and Rio West must prove that the deep aquifers they tap into won’t impact any of the potable aquifers closer to the surface.

Just in case, though, the county agreed with Rio West that after 20 years of pumping, Sandoval County would be responsible for finding a renewable water source for the Rio Puerco, Springfield said.

The agreement points to a long-term dilemma for anyone looking to deep aquifers as a new source of water: If the deep aquifer is disconnected from any renewable supply, eventually the water will run out.

Then the water for developmentslike Rio West will have tocome from somewhere else.

If drawing water from the deep aquifer does impact upper aquifers, developers of big projects like Rio West face the same prospect as other developers: Fighting farmers, environmentalists and other communitiesfor the right to pump.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.

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