The Santa Fe River will swell a little later than city officials originally planned.
Water that was set to begin flowing Thursday from a municipal reservoir into the river will be released instead in the middle of next week to give the city of Santa Fe time to work through logistical snags and consult with some communities, including a dozen tribes, a city official said.
Texas asked New Mexico to release all the water it can spare into the Rio Grande by Jan. 31, so it will flow south to Elephant Butte Reservoir to supply southwestern Texas. The request came as part of a multistate water-sharing agreement called the Rio Grande Compact.
The city plans to release roughly 200 acre-feet of water from Nichols Reservoir into the Santa Fe River, partly as an experiment to see whether the water would pass through an engineered canal at Cochiti Dam and flow into the Rio Grande. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.
"We wish we would've had more time to do consultations with all the tribal entities involved, but we'll make it happen by the deadline," said Jesse Roach, the city's Water Division director.
Roach said officials have contacted about a dozen tribes that may be affected to get their input. They include the Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Tesuque, San Felipe and Isleta pueblos, he said.
Sedelio Tenorio, governor of the Santo Domingo Pueblo, said the tribe wants to ensure the incoming water isn't contaminated.
"We're living right below the Cochiti Lake reservoir," Tenorio said. "We're making sure it's all safe water."
The infusion of water will amplify the Santa Fe River's flow to an unusually high level for five days, Roach said. Water will run at about 20 cubic feet per second, roughly 100 times the current rate.
The last time the river streamed at this volume was briefly in spring 2019, Roach said.
Officials plan to release a total of 948 acre-feet of water from reservoirs in New Mexico to meet the request from Texas.
About 748 acre-feet will be deposited from El Vado Reservoir into the Chama River, which connects to the Rio Grande.
New Mexico owes Texas about 96,000 acre-feet of water in the aftermath of a drought-plagued growing season and, for now, has about 3,000 acre-feet to give.
While some Santa Fe residents have expressed excitement about the river gushing for a short time, others have voiced concerns about possible impacts on bridges and culverts.
A river advocacy group worries that boosting the water to such a high level might damage the two bridges at Calle Debra and Paseo Real near the Santa Fe Regional Airport.
"Nobody knows what the flow is going to be like," said Carl Dickens, co-chairman of the Santa Fe River Traditional Communities Collaborative.
The Calle Debra Bridge has been repaired twice in the past six years, a sign that it is vulnerable to elevated river flows, Dickens said.
A nearby beaver dam could raise the water level even more, Dickens added.
The two main culverts under the Paseo Real Bridge are blocked, leaving only an overflow culvert above them to catch water, Dickens said.
So it's unknown what will happen to the bridges and the road if a torrential flow comes through, he said.
Roach said the average water flow in that area is 7 cfs, so the bridges should be able to withstand triple that volume.
After a storm, the river gushes at a much higher level than that, he said.
Dickens, who works with tribes, said several pueblos have sacred sites near the river. Tribal members understand New Mexico must abide by Texas' request to send water downstream, but they just want a chance to discuss their concerns, Dickens said.
"There really needs to be a better way of reaching out to the pueblos," Dickens said. "They feel a lack of respect sometimes about cultural values."
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Increased Santa Fe River flow delayed to next week - Santa Fe New Mexican
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