Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Plan

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Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Plan Comments Last Updated 05/24/2016 Comment Page Paragraph or Section Number Number Number Comment 5 8.3 Proposed Strategies is currently in a table format. Several watershed restoration projects are considered. Without specific information about the geographical extent of those projects it is not possible to crossreference the listed projects with the Rio Grande Water Fund high priority watershed restoration projects. If not already included, I respectfully request that the following projects be added, and if needed, I am able to complete a “future strategies checklist” for these projects: o Cedro Project on Cibola National Forest in the Tijeras Watershed o La Madera Project on Cibola National Forest in Las Huertas Watershed o Southwest Jemez Project on Santa Fe National Forest in the Jemez River Watershed o Las Conchas fire burned area rehabilitation, including Peralta Canyon on BLM land and Cochiti Pueblo land, and Cochiti and Bland Canyons on Santa Fe National Forest and Cochiti Pueblo and Santo Domingo Pueblo land. TNC is adding these to the PPP table. Comment Type (Technical or Process) Commenter Steering Committee Comments Technical 6 8.3 Proposed Strategies in the table includes 2 watershed restoration policies. I respectfully offer the following policy recommendations for consideration: o Headwater sources are critical for sustained streamflow and groundwater recharge. Overgrown forest conditions create conditions where snow accumulation is reduced and risk of catastrophic wildfire is increased. The extent and costs of restoring headwater source areas are significant and require substantial coordination among all levels of government and stakeholders. Federal and state programs are seeking to leverage investments with local funding match. Specifically: 1. Establish dedicated local funding sources through each County or Soil and Water Conservation Districts for watershed restoration to leverage and match federal and state funding. 2. Advocate for state policies that require agencies to coordinate their investments with each other — and with federal, local, tribal, and private investment—in priority areas for watershed restoration using locally‐developed, science‐based landscape restoration plans as a guide. TNC is adding these to the PPP table. Technical 7 8 After listening to the discussion among the Steering Committee and stakeholders at the February 9, 2016 meeting and reviewing the draft plan and strategy table, I am wondering if establishment of a groundwater management district was considered? The San Luis Valley in Colorado created a district that is leading to cooperative groundwater management, and was presented to a New Mexico audience on November 12, 2015 (see details at http://waterbank.nmsu.edu/). If this has not been discussed by the Steering Committee, I respectfully request that the concept be considered as a policy recommendation for the Santa Fe group aquifer system. i ddi hi h bl 8 2 Common Technical Approach 9 9 Endangered Species 10 11 Small and Rural drinking water systems Please include some text explaining that because data on tribal diversions is not available, these may not be accurately reflected in the estimation of supply. It would be more appropriate to indicate "federally protected species," as, of the four noted, the western yellow‐billed cuckoo is currently listed as threatened. There are also a variety of protected plants in the region that are not discussed ‐ the Pecos sunflower for example, present within the MRG region, could be impacted by changing hydrology, others may be as well. This section should reflect all the species indicated on pages 25‐6 of the legal section, as well as any other protected plants in the region. communities also need to improve community wastewater systems to protect water quality. Please include some text on this subject. 11 18 Groundwater Groundwater also supplies livestock wells. Please reword the second sentence as follows: "It provides Resources first back up supply to the ABCWUA when surface water cannot be diverted, and supplies most of the paragraph region's small drinking water systems and many livestock tanks." 12 24 2010 Please include a note explaining that because data on tribal diversions is not available, these may not be Administrative accurately reflected in the estimation of the administrative water supply. Water Supply 13 25 Present Uses Please include a note explaining that because data on tribal withdrawals is not available, amounts are likely to be underestimated. Technical Nature Conservancy ‐ Laura McCarthy Nature Conservancy ‐ Laura McCarthy Nature Conservancy ‐ Laura McCarthy Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Steering committee agrees Sharon Hausam Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Steering committee agrees Sharon Hausam The Steering Committee agrees with Laura's comments in general. Laura is working directly with the ISC for specific new language to add. The Steering Committee agrees with Laura's comments in general. Laura is working directly with the ISC for specific new language to add. The Steering Committee agrees with Laura's comments in general. Laura is working directly with the ISC for specific new language to add. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Steering committee agrees. Add sentence to end of bullet #3 Sharon Hausam Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Steering Committee prefers: "It provides supply to the region's Sharon Hausam municipal water providers and supplies most of the region's small drinking water systems, livestock tanks, agriculture, and small Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Perhaps add a clear section (in the Common Technical Platform Sharon Hausam section) explaining how tribal data was treated and/or missing. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Same as Comment 18 ‐ make a clear description on tribal data in Sharon Hausam the CTP section. Page 2 of 17
Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Plan Comments Last Updated 05/24/2016 Comment Page Paragraph or Section Comment Type (Technical or Number Number Number Comment Process) Commenter Steering Committee Comments 14 30 Please update the information about the Santolina development. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Same Comment as Elaine Hebard (#150). Update to show it was Sharon Hausam approved by County Commission in June 2015. 15 38 Water Demand Projection Methods 16 40 paragraph on commercial self‐supplied Please include a note explaining that because data on tribal diversions is not available, these may not be accurately reflected in the estimation of administrative water supply, and thus, the use of administrative water supply may lead to underestimates of future demand. Please include text noting that data on tribal commercial self‐supplied wells was not available, and thus the use of this data may lead to underestimates of future demand. 17 1 Section 2 The chapter should only list the meetings for the region discussed in each plan, not the meetings in all of the regions, which are not relevant to this specific plan. 18 6 Section 2 Please remove Sharon Hausam's name from the list of steering committee members. Dr. Hausam and Mr. Adam Ringia have attended regional water planning meetings and provided comments on the planning process, and wish to continue to receive all information that is provided to the steering committee; however, the Pueblo of Laguna has not committed to formal representation on the steering committee, which could be misconstrued as approval of the plan. Furthermore, Dr. Hausam was not appointed by the Pueblo Governor, and has never stated that she was. We suggest that the plan include a list of participants in the planning process in lieu of or in addition to the list of steering committee members. 19 18 Section 4 ‐ Legal 20 18 Section 4 ‐ Legal 21 25 Section 4 ‐ Legal 22 28 Section 4 ‐ Legal 23 Section 8 ‐ PPP table The Pueblo of Laguna's water code refers to the "sub‐village," not the Village, of Philadelphia. Please correct this. Please provide a description of tribal Treatment as a State under federal law, and its relevance to the region, in the section on tribal water quality standards. This section neglects the variety of protected plants that are in the region and may be impacted. Please update to reflect all of the species protected by the Act, not just the animals. Please provide a description of tribal Treatment as a State under federal law, and its relevance to the region. The Pueblo appreciates the addition of some of the alternatives described in its June 8, 2015 letter. However, there appears to have been some misinterpretation, and some not included. Community Water System Development: This does not refer solely to converting homeowners on individual wells to community water systems. It also refers to improvements to existing community water systems that are prone to leakage and breakage. The subcategory should be "water system infrastructure." R2‐9, Storm Water Management and Implementation Plans: This should not refer solely to plans, but also to actual implementation. The suggested wording was "Storm Water Management Planning and Implementation." R4‐1: Please edit "Update Agricultural Conveyance" to "Upgrade Agricultural Storage and Conveyance," or add an alternative, "Improve Agricultural Water Storage," as previously requested. Agricultural storage facilities such as dams and stock tanks, as well as conveyance facilities, also need upgrades for water conservations. Water Quality: Please add "Water Quality Treatment" and "Community Wastewater System Development/Improvement," as previously requested. Water quality treatment to meet standards for various uses would improve water availability. Although "Mitigate Septic Tanks" is included, this does not address the need to improve existing wastewater systems that are prone to leakage and breakage. Improvements are needed to protect water quality. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Same as Comment 18 ‐ make a clear description on tribal data in Sharon Hausam the CTP section. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Same as Comment 18 ‐ make a clear description on tribal data in Sharon Hausam the CTP section. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Steering Committee agrees Sharon Hausam Process Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Steering Committee has no comment. She is now listed as an Sharon Hausam observer on the steering committee list. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ OK Sharon Hausam Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ The Steering Committee suggest Sharon speak with the ISC legal Sharon Hausam department directly on this comment. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Steering Committee agrees Sharon Hausam Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ The Steering Committee suggest Sharon speak with the ISC legal Sharon Hausam department directly on this comment. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ Section 8 is still changing. The missing suggestions of Water Sharon Hausam System and Agricultural Infrastructure will be corrected. While the committee does not object to the name changes of the previous alternatives, the update does not rename the alternatives. The update assesses the impacts of the 2004 alternatives and lists current priorities. A clearer description of the priority alternatives will be in Section 8 narrative. 24 Figures All maps of the region should show the boundaries of tribal lands. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ The Steering Committee agrees, but also realizes that tribal Sharon Hausam boundaries can be difficult to map. The data is not easy to obtain. 25 Figures In all maps, the heading "explanation" should be changed to "legend." Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ The steering committee did not think this was a priority Sharon Hausam 26 Figures In all maps, the label "city," which is inaccurate for MANY of the jurisdictions in the region, should be changed. A more appropriate label might be "city/place," reflecting U.S. Census terminology. Technical Pueblo of Laguna ‐ No comment Sharon Hausam Page 3 of 17
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Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Pl
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Table of Contents Executive Summary
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List of Figures 1-1 Location of Mid
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5-12 Leaking Underground Storage Ta
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MCL MCLG MDWCA MRCOG MRGAA MRGCD MR
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Executive Summary The Middle Rio Gr
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Planning Method For this RWP, water
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appropriations are available in the
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channel aggradation. These changes
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In 2014, the U.S. Environmental Pro
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• Bosque and other riparian habit
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1. Introduction The Middle Rio Gran
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The organization of this update fol
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2.1 The New Mexico Interstate Strea
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2.2.1 Identification of Regional St
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Table 2-1. Steering Committee Membe
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Table 2-2. Middle Rio Grande Region
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Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation
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Sierra water planning region. Geogr
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Table 3-1. Summary of Demographic a
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4. Legal Issues 4.1 Relevant Water
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In addition to Tri-State, several c
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Socorro, Valencia, Bernalillo, Sand
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Authority’s application sought to
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equires the NMOSE to conduct hydrol
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3. Allow for the declaration of dom
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provided for another review procedu
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Source: NMOSE, 2014a and 2014c La J
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4.1.3 Federal Water Laws The law of
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As discussed above, the three party
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existing, and future uses). No adju
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• Gather information on domestic
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plan recognizes that water is easil
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• Protect groundwater by preventi
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not adequately consider all of the
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4.2.2 Water Quality Laws 4.2.2.1 Fe
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National Priorities List (NPL). 42
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• The Jicarilla Apache Nation Cod
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• Water users seeking to obtain w
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• The Federal Emergency Managemen
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water balance in the Middle Rio Gra
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Table 5-1. Middle Rio Grande Climat
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Sources: 1. WRCC, 2014 2. NWS, 2005
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Jemez Springs Temperature (°F) 90
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Jemez Springs Precipitation (inches
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drought monitoring systems, and it
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Climate Division 5 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
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expected. To assess climate trends
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Rio Chama La Jara JEMEZ RIVER NEAR
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Table 5-4a. USGS Stream Gage Statio
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Table 5-4a. USGS Stream Gage Statio
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Table 5-4b. USGS Stream Gage Annual
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Table 5-5. USGS Stream Gage Average
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1,200,000 1,000,000 Jemez River nea
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Rio Grande at Albuquerque, NM 2,000
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Table 5-6. Reservoirs and Lakes (gr
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Table 5-7. Dams with Dam Safety Def
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Tsj Southern Rocky Mountain Colorad
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In order to evaluate changes in wat
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5,025 5,020 351852106344901 Aquifer
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Source: NMED, 2014a and 2014c Note:
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Table 5-8. Total Maximum Daily Load
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Table 5-9. Municipal and Industrial
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Table 5-10. Groundwater Discharge P
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Table 5-11. Superfund Sites in the
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Table 5-12. Leaking Underground Sto
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Table 5-13. Landfills in the Middle
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Runoff, flooding, and debris flows
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• The minimum annual yield for ke
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Table 6-1. Total Withdrawals in the
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P:\_NM15-203\RWPs_2016\12_MRG\Figur
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• Riparian evapotranspiration: So
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The Arrowhead Center at NMSU analyz
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• The continued presence of Sandi
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to 669,727 acres. Also, during that
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Page 186 and 187: Table 6-4. 2010 Water Withdrawals f
Page 188 and 189: Table 6-4 2010 Water Withdrawals fo
Page 194 and 195: • Consumptive use occurs when wat
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Page 198 and 199: demand in this sector. The amount o
Page 200 and 201: 6.5.2 Middle Rio Grande Projected W
Page 202 and 203: Table 6-5 Projected Water Demand, 2
Page 204 and 205: Within Bernalillo County, the high
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Page 208 and 209: • Priority for Continued Implemen
Page 210 and 211: When the 2004 RWP was developed the
Page 212 and 213: Table 8-2. Key Collaborative Progra
Page 214 and 215: Table 8-2. Key Collaborative Progra
Page 216 and 217: Bartolino, James R. and James C. Co
Page 218 and 219: Hawley, J.W. 1986. Physiographic pr
Page 220 and 221: The Middle Rio Grande-Albuquerque R
Page 222 and 223: New Mexico Environment Department (
Page 224 and 225: S.S. Papadopulos & Associates, Inc.
Page 226 and 227: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). 2014
Page 228 and 229: Middle Rio Grande Region 12 RWP Mas
Page 230 and 231: Riley Middle Rio Grande Region 12 R
Page 232 and 233: Appendix 2-B Summary of Comments on
Page 236 and 237: Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Pl
Page 250 and 251: Appendix 6-A List of Individuals In
Page 252 and 253: Appendix 6-B Projected Population G
Page 254 and 255: Appendix 8-A Review of 2004 Strateg
Page 256 and 257: Appendix 8-A. Steering Committee Re
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Regional Water Planning Update Proj
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Regional Water Planning Update Proj
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Regional Water Planning Update Infr
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Regional Water Planning Update Infr
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Planning Region Middle Rio Grande M
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Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Plan

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