1997-1998 Annual Report
Appendix II
Interstate Stream Commission-Review of Basin Development Issues
Inside Appendix II
The Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) and its staff represent the interests of New Mexico in a variety of interstate forums and cooperate with federal agencies, particularly the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service, in basin development projects of benefit to New Mexico. A review of some of these forums and projects, by basin, follows. Activities directly involving recovery plans for endangered species are summarized in Appendix III.
Colorado River Basin Development
Beginning in 1961, the U.S. received protests from Mexico over the marked increase in the salinity of Colorado River water delivered to Mexico by the United States under the Rio Grande, Colorado, and Tiajuana Treaty of 1944. After several more modest, but unsuccessful, attempts to ameliorate the poor quality of Colorado River water at the border, Congress enacted the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act (PL 93-320) in 1974. The Act authorized the construction, operation and maintenance of certain works in the Colorado River basin to control the salinity of water delivered to users in the United States and Mexico. Title I of the act authorized a program downstream from Imperial Dam, consisting primarily of a 120-million-gallon-per-day desalting plant near Yuma, Arizona. Title II authorized salinity control measures upstream from Imperial Dam.
The Yuma Desalting Plant began operation in May, 1992, building up to an operation of one third of plant capacity to test the plant facilities and determine operating costs. Operations at the Plant were suspended in January 1993. Following shutdown, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reviewed the future operation of the Yuma Desalting Plant, considering the high operation costs and the pressures on the Federal budget. Reclamation recommended maintaining the Desalting Plant in standby status for the foreseeable future and requested comments from the Colorado River basin states. New Mexico commented, in summary, that the state had no substantive objection to placing the Desalting Plant on standby with a clear understanding that the Plant be maintained to enable restart within a reasonable time, that Reclamation continue its program associated with the operation of the Desalting Plant, including research and development programs focusing on desalting technology, and that the Colorado River Basin states be consulted once each year as to the current status of the Desalting Plant and the need for it to be prepared for restart. The Desalting Plant has continued on standby status.
Title II also provided for the establishment of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Advisory Council. The council advises the secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Interior and Agriculture and the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on matters relating to salinity control measures and procedures specified in Title II. Interstate Stream Commission staff members participate in the activities of the council. Thomas C. Turney, State Engineer, was appointed to the Advisory Council representing New Mexico through December 31, 1998.
In response to a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Colorado River Basin states formed the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum in 1973. Title II of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act, as amended by P.L. 98-569, authorized salinity reduction measures above Imperial Dam, which are a part of the forum's implementation plan.
The forum's work group holds three or four meetings each year to work on the implementation plan and to consider new salinity control projects, revisions of approved projects, and support of project construction and general investigation appropriations to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Interstate Stream Commission staff participates in the activities of the forum and its work group.
Section 303(c) of the Clean Water Act requires that water quality standards be reviewed at least every three years. The 1996 review, including numeric salinity standards for the Colorado River, was adopted by the forum and was submitted to the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission for adoption into the Water Quality Standards for Interstate and Intrastate Streams in New Mexico.
The forum meets at least twice a year and maintains an office in Bountiful, Utah. Member states are assessed shares of the forum's budget. Thomas C. Turney, State Engineer, was appointed to the forum as New Mexico's representative through December 31, 1998.
Reclamation carried out salinity studies on the San Juan Basin in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, and is implementing a salinity control project on the Hammond Project near Bloomfield, New Mexico. The project will line portions of the Hammond Project main canal and will eliminate an estimated 27,700 tons of salt per year from the Colorado River system at a cost of about $37 per ton. Also, the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is studying an on-farm salinity control project in the Hogback area. Analysis indicates that the project is feasible and cost-effective. Studies will continue in future fiscal years as funding is available.
Upper Colorado-San Juan Basin Development
Most of the water allocated to New Mexico by the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact is put to use through San Juan River basin projects developed and operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The San Juan basin projects include Navajo Dam and Reservoir, and the Hammond, Navajo Indian Irrigation, and Animas-La Plata Projects. A fifth project, the San Juan-Chama transbasin diversion, carries water from the San Juan to the Rio Grande, and will be described with other Rio Grande basin development. In addition to these projects in operation, studies to update the 1984 Gallup-Navajo Indian Water Supply project were initiated in 1993.
Constructed and operated by Reclamation, the reservoir provides river regulation pursuant to the Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1958 and storage for the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, the Hammond Project, and for municipal and industrial uses.
In addition, the 1992 Jicarilla Apache Water Rights Settlement Act authorizes a settlement contract between the Secretary of the Interior and the Jicarilla Apache Tribe under which the Tribe will receive water from the Navajo Reservoir supply and the San Juan-Chama Project. The contract, signed on December 8, 1992, provides that the Tribe may divert up to 33,500 acre-feet per year from Navajo Reservoir and receive up to 6,500 acre-feet per year through the works of the San Juan-Chama Project. However, the Settlement Act limits the total depletion of the Navajo Reservoir supply by the Tribe to 25,500 acre-feet per year. The settlement contract also contemplates that the Tribe can market its water for use outside the reservation until such time as the total amount of water can be used within the reservation, subject to all the conditions of state law and applicable federal law.
Since 1991, Navajo Dam and Reservoir have been operated so that downstream flow hydrographs would mimic natural spring snowmelt runoff patterns, which are believed to benefit endangered fish populations in the San Juan River. During fiscal year 1997-98, the Biology Committee of the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program worked on developing operating rules for Navajo Dam which would meet the needs of both users of the Navajo Reservoir and endangered fish. Draft operating rules for Navajo Dam were not completed during the report period.
Operating rules for Navajo Dam will consider winter base flow releases as well as spring runoff releases. In past years, the dam has been operated to release base flow of about 500-600 cubic feet per second (cfs). For two weeks in January 1996 and for four months from November 4, 1996, through March 2, 1997, Reclamation reduced Navajo Dam releases to a minimum of 250 cfs to study the effects of lower winter flows on San Juan River resources, including water quality, wetlands, endangered fish habitat, the tailwater trout fishery and waterfowl. The study did not show significant adverse impacts to these resources as a result of lower winter flows. The lower winter flows did, however, result in a significant reduction in power generation by the City of Farmington at its Navajo Dam hydroelectric power plant.
The Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (NIIP) was authorized by Public Law 87-483 in 1962. Construction of the delivery canal from Navajo Reservoir commenced in 1964, and the first irrigation water was delivered to Block 1 in the spring of 1976.
The Navajo Agricultural Products Industry (NAPI), formed by resolution of the Navajo Tribal Council, is responsible for the operation and management of the project's irrigation works and for the farming and marketing activities of the project. In 1985, NAPI also assumed the operation and maintenance of the NIIP water delivery system from Navajo Reservoir.
The NIIP is now approximately 57 percent complete, with the water delivery system operational for 63,567 acres, and canal structures complete for additional acreage.
During the 1997 irrigation season, a total of 57,878 acres on the NIIP received 156,800 acre-feet of water from Navajo Reservoir. The project acreage and water supply data furnished by the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry are summarized in Table 9. (See Appendix III for discussion of Endangered Species Act considerations relative to NAPI)
Navajo Agricultural Products Industry Water Usage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Block | NIIP Water Delivery Capability Aces | NAPI Acres Farmed | Farm Delivery (acre-feet) |
| 1 | 8,872 | 8,054 | 20,383 |
| 2 | 9,516 | 8,436 | 19,542 |
| 3 | 8,455 | 7,636 | 14,179 |
| 4 | 9,884 | 8,913 | 17,438 |
| 5 | 9,662 | 8,634 | 19,411 |
| 6 | 8,095 | 7,153 | 19,472 |
| 7 | 9,387 | 9,052 | 23,187 |
| Total | 63,871 | 57,878 * | 133,611 |
| * Includes conservation and fallow acreage that did not receive irrigation water on a scheduled basis | |||
The Animas-La Plata Project was authorized in 1968 by Public Law 90-537. An initial appropriation to begin construction was authorized by the Congress and construction officially began with a ground-breaking ceremony in October 1991, after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its final biological opinion for the project.
In February 1992, a coalition of environmental groups filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation alleging violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act. The complaint requested that construction of the project be enjoined until the requirements of the two Acts are met.
Reclamation withdrew from the construction activities initiated in 1991 pending an effort to supplement its 1980 Final Environmental Impact Statement for Animas La Plata to address the issues raised in the complaint and others. In 1996, Reclamation prepared its Final Supplement to the 1980 Final Environmental Impact Statement which, among other things, outlined the continuing disputes over the project.
In an attempt to resolve these disputes, Governor Romer and Lt. Governor Schoettler of Colorado convened the project supporters and opponents to seek resolution of the controversy and consensus on an alternative to the proposed project. The "Romer/Schoettler Process" did not achieve consensus. It did produce two alternatives.
One of these, Animas-La Plata Light, would consist of an off-stream storage reservoir at the Ridges Basin site to provide water for the two Colorado Ute Tribes, municipal and industrial water for use in Colorado and New Mexico, and a limited supply for irrigation use in both states. No irrigation facilities would be included. The two Ute Tribes agreed to the reduced water supply that would be provided by Animas-La Plata Light. Legislation to implement Animas-La Plata Light was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives as H.R. 3478, and a committee hearing was held. The current federal administration does not support the legislation, but has designated a person to attempt to delineate a project to provide water for the Indian tribes and possibly municipal use.
This project would deliver water from Navajo Reservoir to Gallup and communities on the Navajo Reservation in both New Mexico and Arizona for municipal and domestic water uses. During fiscal year 1997-98, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation continued its feasibility planning study for the project and drafted a project plan document. The Bureau of Indian Affairs took the role of lead federal agency for the purpose of pursuing Endangered Species Act Section 7 consultation on the project with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Interstate Stream Commission staff participate with the federal agencies, the Navajo Nation, the City of Gallup and others on a steering committee which provides oversight to the planning process for the project.
Lower Colorado River Basin Development
During calendar years 1997 and 1998, because of abundant water supplies in the Colorado River basin, the Secretary of the Interior was able to declare a "surplus condition" for the operation of Lake Mead, thus allowing Lower Basin uses in excess of 7.5 million acre-feet (maf) from the mainstream. This surplus water was welcomed by California and Nevada. In addition, 1.7 maf was available for delivery to Mexico in both years, 200,000 acre feet in excess of the treaty obligation.
The three Lower Division States continue to explore measures to provide additional water supply to meet their growing demands. Considerable attention has been focused on water conservation, transfer from agriculture to municipal use, and groundwater banking. California has been seeking to implement measures to reduce its use of mainstream water to its basic apportionment of 4.4 maf.
In 1996 Arizona initiated the Arizona Water Banking Authority program authorized by the state legislature. The program provides for underground storage of Central Arizona Project (CAP) water that was allocated to Arizona under the Colorado River Compact. If Arizona water users do not contract for a given year's full CAP supply, the Authority may store the surplus underground for later recovery and use. The Banking Authority is also authorized to store CAP water for the benefit of Nevada and California if interstate banking agreements are implemented and the Secretary of the Interior adopts rules to allow the interstate water to be stored and recovered under the provisions of the decree in Arizona v. California. The Secretary plans to issue draft rules in the fall of 1998.
In April 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued the final rule designating 1,980 miles of the Colorado River and its tributaries as critical habitat for four endangered fish species. New Mexico water users are affected by the designation of habitat for the Colorado squawfish and the razorback sucker in the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico. See Appendix III for more details.
This study was initiated in 1982 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to evaluate Hooker Dam and Reservoir, or a suitable alternative, as a unit of the Central Arizona Project (CAP), which brings mainstream Colorado River water to the interior of Arizona. The 1968 Congressional act that authorized Hooker Dam (PL 90-537), also authorized an increase in New Mexico consumptive use of Gila River water of 18,000 additional acre-feet beyond the allocation provided for in Arizona v. New Mexico, provided that use was offset by substitution of CAP water for existing withdrawals from the Gila within Arizona.
In 1986, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the spike dace and the loach minnow as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and in 1994 the Service designated 202 miles of the Gila River and its tributaries in New Mexico and Arizona as critical habitat for the two threatened fish. The Upper Gila Water Supply Study Special Report on Alternatives, issued by Reclamation in 1987 shows that part or all of the 18,000 acre-feet at issue might be developed in a way consistent with protecting endangered fish species of the Gila River.
The report's economic analysis, however, indicated that the project should probably be delayed until available groundwater supplies are no longer adequate to meet Grant County municipal and industrial water needs, which was expected to occur around the year 2010.
In 1998 the New Mexico Legislature appropriated $100,000 to the State Engineer to conduct a planning study to assess the needs of water users in southwestern New Mexico with a view to acquiring water, if need exists, through PL 90-537. The planning study will be conducted in fiscal year 1998-99.
The Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1958 provides that an annual operating plan for Colorado River Reservoirs (AOP) must be prepared by the Secretary of the Interior in consultation with the Colorado River basin states. The Grand Canyon Protection Act of 1992 requires this consultation to include the general public. The AOP determines the projected operation of the Colorado River Reservoirs to satisfy Project purposes, considering hydrology, climate, storage requirements, and users' needs. The AOP for 1999 was considered at a consultation meeting scheduled in August 1998.
The Secretary of the Interior has mandated the development of an Adaptive Management Program for the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and appointed an Adaptive Management Work Group to facilitate the program, recommend suitable monitoring and research and make recommendations. Appointees included staff from several Federal agencies, Arizona Game and Fish Department, several Indian tribes, the seven Colorado River Basin States, environmental groups, recreation interests and contractors for federal power from Glen Canyon Dam. Thomas C. Turney represents New Mexico on the Adaptive Management Work Group, which had its first and second meetings during fiscal year 1997-98.
The 1997 runoff in the Rio Grande Basin in New Mexico was above the long-term mean discharge. The recorded flow of the Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge was 1.32 million acre-feet, compared to the long-term mean of 1.1 million acre-feet.
An efficient low-flow channel from San Acacia diversion dam into Elephant Butte Reservoir is crucial to maintaining the scheduled delivery of water set out by the Rio Grande Compact. Use of the channel to convey Rio Grande flows has been discontinued since 1985 when inflow caused Elephant Butte Reservoir to fill to near capacity, creating backwater in the low-flow conveyance channel and causing it to become silted at the upper end of the reservoir. The channel continues to operate as a drain.
The conveyance channel remained out of service during fiscal year 1998. The Bureau of Reclamation is currently undertaking a reevaluation of the low-flow conveyance channel's physical and operational parameters. Alternatives are being developed as part of an Environmental Impact Statement process, in which the Interstate Stream Commission is participating.
The San Juan-Chama Project is a transbasin diversion that brings 96,200 acre-feet of Upper Colorado River basin water allocated to New Mexico under the Upper Colorado Basin Compact into the Rio Grande basin for use in New Mexico. The water is diverted from the San Juan River and brought through a tunnel across the Continental Divide to the Chama River, where it is stored in Heron Reservoir until it is released to its New Mexico contractors.
In 1981, Congress enacted Public Law 97-140 authorizing the storage of San Juan-Chama Project water in Abiquiu and Elephant Butte reservoirs; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has entered into temporary agreements with San Juan-Chama Project water contractors for the storage of water in Abiquiu Reservoir. As of June 30, 1998, there were approximately 146,900 acre-feet of San Juan-Chama Project water stored in Abiquiu Reservoir.
The Pojoaque Valley Irrigation District continued to operate Nambe Falls Dam and Reservoir, a tributary unit of the San Juan-Chama Project, for the district. The dam and reservoir provide a supplemental water supply for users on the Nambe-Pojoaque stream system. The effect of storage in Nambe Falls Reservoir upon the flow of the Rio Grande is offset by releases of San Juan-Chama Project water from Heron Reservoir. In 1997, 1,402 acre-feet were released to offset this effect on the Rio Grande.
The Interstate Stream Commission previously authorized an expenditure from the Improvement of the Rio Grande Income Fund to purchase San Juan-Chama Project water from the City of Albuquerque for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a sediment pool in Jemez Canyon Reservoir. On June 30, 1998, the Jemez Canyon sediment pool contained approximately 21,161 acre-feet of San Juan-Chama water and 2 acre-feet of Rio Grande floodwater.
Rio Grande Floodway: San Acacia to Bosque del Apache UnitAdvanced engineering and design studies by the Corps of Engineers are continuing on reconstruction of the existing levee system separating the Rio Grande floodway and the low-flow channel along the entire reach from the San Acacia diversion works to the San Marcial Bridge. The reevaluation report for the project has been approved and the Corps of Engineers has begun the design phase of the project. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District has agreed to act as the local sponsor provided the District is not responsible for the non-federal share of the project cost. At its meeting of July 19, 1993, the Commission authorized a grant of up to $6.95 million from the Improvement of the Rio Grande Income Fund to pay a portion of the non-federal share of the project cost.
In 1997, the Albuquerque District completed the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and the redesign of the project to address environmental concerns and an improved seepage control of long duration flooding. The current cost estimate of the total project is $63.0 million. The local cost share for the project, which includes the relocation of the San Marcial railroad bridge, is $8.1 million.
Rio Grande Floodway: Bernalillo to Belen UnitThe Bernalillo to Belen section of the Middle Rio Grande Flood Protection Project was authorized by the Water Resources Development Act of 1986. It consists of approximately 52 miles of levee to protect 29,000 residents and about $820 million of property in Corrales and Belen in the Middle Rio Grande Valley. The proposed project would connect with existing levees in the Albuquerque area to provide channel capacity of 42,000 cubic feet per second for protection from floods originating in the uncontrolled upstream drainage area.
The 1986 Act requires the local sponsor to provide at least 25% of the total project cost, including lands, easements, rights-of-way and relocations associated with the project. The general design document has been approved and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District has agreed to be the local sponsor.
As part of the Bernalillo to Belen Project, construction of the separable levee unit known as the Corrales Unit was proposed. This portion consists of removing the existing spoilbank levee and constructing 10.6 miles of new levee along the right bank of the Rio Grande through the Village of Corrales and vicinity. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District agreed to enter into a Project Cooperation Agreement with the Department of the Army for construction of the Corrales Unit. The local cost share was provided by appropriated severance tax bond proceeds totaling $650,000 and grants from the Interstate Stream Commission's Improvement of the Rio Grande Income Fund totaling $2,250,000. Construction of the Corrales Unit was completed in July 1997.
The current cost estimate for the remaining Belen Unit is $34 million. The local cost share is estimated to be $8.5 million. A Limited Reevaluation Report of the Belen Unit is currently in progress.
Abiquiu Dam Emergency GatesTo expedite future repairs and avoid an uncontrolled evacuation of Abiquiu reservoir if a gate becomes lodged in an open position, Public Law 99-662 authorized the installation of emergency gates, subject to the approval of the Assistant Secretary of the Army. The project was awarded in May 1997, with a scheduled completion of June 1999. The estimated cost of the installation project is $3.9 million.
Abiquiu Reservoir StoragePublic Law 100-522, approved in 1988, authorized the Secretary of the Army to store 200,000 acre-feet of Rio Grande system water at Abiquiu Dam in lieu of San Juan-Chama Project water authorized by Public Law 97-140. The storage would be allowed to the extent that San Juan-Chama Project water storage is no longer required by the project beneficiaries. Storage under the authorization is subject to the provisions of the Rio Grande Compact. No Rio Grande system water was stored in Abiquiu Reservoir under the provisions of Public Law 100-522 during the fiscal year.
In 1964, Congress enacted Public Law 88-594, which authorized the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to carry out a program of phreatophyte eradication and management in the flood plain of the Pecos River extending from Santa Rosa, New Mexico, to Girvin, Texas on the condition that the States of New Mexico and Texas acquire such lands, easements, rights of way, and other interests in lands necessary to carry out the program. Phreatophytes are plants that habitually obtain their water supply from the zone of saturation, either directly, or through the capillary fringe.
During the report period, no new phreatophyte clearing was undertaken pursuant to the federal act, but all of the previously cleared areas in New Mexico (33,230 acres) were kept clear by root plowing. The Interstate Stream Commission has contracted with Reclamation for acquisition of new and permanent easements required for the program.
In 1997, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation initiated compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, regarding water operations on the Pecos River, New Mexico. The NEPA team, consisting of representatives from several cooperating agencies including the Office of the State Engineer, is working toward a NEPA document which is expected to be completed in 1999. (See Appendix III for discussion of Endangered Species issues connected with these reservoirs)
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