Transcript Seven Rivers Pipeline Project

The Pecos River in New Mexico
New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission
Presented to the Pecos River Water Quality Coalition
October 21, 2011
The 1948 Pecos Compact
• Signed by TX and NM after years of
contentious negotiations
• Principal tenet of Compact is that NM
“shall not deplete by man’s activities the
flow of the Pecos River at the NM-TX
state line” below the “1947 condition”
The Compact
& Decree
Require
• Deliveries to Texas
calculated on a
calendar-year basis
• Use of the Supreme
Court River Master’s
Manual & decisions
• Rapid “repayment”
of any net shortfalls
Pecos Compact Compliance
• NM unable to meet Compact delivery
requirements
– Large factor is declining base flow gains to
river
– Caused by increased groundwater
pumping in Roswell Basin
• NM under-delivers to TX roughly 10,000
AF/yr mid-1950s to mid-1980s
Base Inflow to the Pecos River
Acme to Artesia
140
Base Inflow (KAF/Y)
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1905
1915
1925
1935
1945
1955
Year
1965
1975
1985
1995
2005
Pecos River Cumulative Delivery Departures
from Obligation 1952 - 2010
100
Departure in Thousand of AF
99.6
TAF
0
Consensus
Agreement
adopted
-100
Paid $14 Million for
failure to comply
-200
Purchased $88 Million in
water rights & leases
(1992 - 2008)
-300
Cumulative Departure Curve
-400
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
Year
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
Pecos Compact Compliance
• TX sues NM in Supreme Court in 1974
• NM loses, pays $14 million fine and
• Must now abide by Court’s 1988
Amended Decree
– Federal River Master oversees all deliveries
to TX
– No net delivery shortfall allowed
– Rapid repayment required if shortfall occurs
– Non-compliance likely result: loss of state
control over its water resources
Pecos Compact Compliance
Post-Decree
• NM purchases and leases over $30
million in water rights during 1990s to
meet Compact/Decree terms
• NM stays in compliance, but barely
• Drought of early 2000s looked to push NM
into shortfall
• Dire conditions brought water interests
together to start developing what would
become the Pecos Settlement
Settlement Chronology
• July 2001 – Anticipating a net delivery
shortfall to Texas, ISC sets up an ad-hoc
committee to develop:
– a short-term plan to avoid a net shortfall in
2001
– a long-term plan to avoid future priority calls
Settlement Chronology – Cont’d
• March 25, 2003: Pecos Settlement
Signed by all Parties
–
–
–
–
–
State Engineer
Interstate Stream Commission
The United States (DOI –BOR)
Carlsbad Irrigation District
Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District
Settlement Objectives
• Permanent compliance with the Pecos
River Compact and Decree
• Increased and stable water supply for
Carlsbad Irrigation District
• Reduced likelihood of a priority call on
the Pecos River
• Bring basin back into hydrologic
balance
Key Hydrologic Elements
• Retire up to 6,000 acres of irrigation rights
within CID and up to 11,000 acres within
PVACD
• Augmentation pumping up to 35,000 AFY, but
not more than 100,000 AF during each 5-year
accounting period
• Use CID water allocated to ISC lands for
reallocation to CID farmers and for state line
delivery
ISC Pecos Settlement Land/Water
Acquisitions: December 2009
Acreage Yet To Be Negotiated
12000
14
Acreage Purchased
10000
Acres
8000
Target =
12,000
Target =
7,500
12
6000
4000
2
Target =
4,500
11,986
7,488
4,498
2000
0
PVACD
CID
Total
Augmentation Pumping Capacity
18,000
Target = 15,750
Capacity (acre-feet/year)
16,000
14,000
12,000
10,000
Target =
10,000
8,000
15,750
6,000
4,000
10,000
2,000
Target =
4,000
4,000
Target =
1,750
1,750
0
Seven Rivers
Well Field
Lake Arthur
Pipeline
Hagerman
Canal
Total Capacity
(AF/Y)
Pecos Settlement Implemented
On June 11, 2009 Pecos Settlement
Parties Jointly Declared “that the
Conditions Precedent required for
implementation of the Settlement
Agreement have been sufficiently
satisfied such that the Settlement Parties
agree that the settlement terms should
now be implemented”
Augmentation Well Fields
Lake Arthur Well Field
• 5 wells
• Original capacity 7,900 gpm
• Design capacity 10,000 gpm
7-Rivers Well Summary
Well
Name
Well
Depth
(ft bgl)
Depth to
Water
(ft bgl)
HP
Transmissivity
(ft2/day)
Design
Capacity
(gpm)
Total
Dissolved
Solids
(mg/L)
B
808
56.1
300
6,520
2,500
1,772
C
763
23.4
250
6,800
2,500
2,418
E
1,004
25.1
150
1,200
1,000
2,203
G
637
32.8
250
16,100 to 16,500
3,000
2,300
H
803
59.1
200
20,500
2,500
1,948
I
692
65.7
200
19,000
2,500
1,898
J
743
87.3
200
28,000
1,500
1,900
K
803
118.1
200
22,600
1,300
1,287
L
693
76.9
200
16,100
2,200
2,000
Q
992
8.3
250
590
1,000
2,960
Settlement Benefits to the ISC
• On average, an additional 9,400 AFY is
delivered to the state line
• A mechanism is in place to deliver
additional water to the state line within a
short period of time if there is ever a net
shortfall
• Potential to build a delivery credit of
115,000 AF
Practical Aspects of
Settlement Implementation
• Augmentation pumping is required
according to Settlement schedule
• Seven Rivers pumping cost ≈ $60/acrefoot
• Estimated “average” annual augmentation
pumping about 12,000 acre-feet/year
• “Average” annual ISC pumping cost
roughly $700,000/year
– Electricity + O&M
Where Are We This Year?
• Current Augmentation Pumping Rates:
– Seven Rivers – 17,400 gpm or 39 cfs
• ISC has pumped over 11,500 acre-feet
of water since March 1st to augment
CID’s supply
• Due to large net credit no pumping for
Texas this year
Where Are We This Year?
• 2011 is the driest year on record in the
Pecos Basin
• Augmentation pumping cannot replace
lack of natural river flow
• Likely to end year with annual Pecos
Compact deficit
• NM will maintain net credit – current net
credit is 99,600 acre-feet
Endangered Species Act Issues
Endangered Species Act Issues
• Many ESA and other environmental
issues on Pecos River
• Primary water management threat is the
Federally threatened Pecos bluntnose
shiner
• Principal challenge is meeting
mandated minimum flows, especially in
consecutive drought years
Pecos Bluntnose Shiner
Management Challenges
• Avoiding river intermittency in critical
habitat reaches
– Ensure the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s Biological Opinion flow
requirements are met (35 cfs Below
Taiban gage, wet at Acme gage)
• Violating BO could have significant
negative ramifications
ISC’s Role in PBNS
Management
• Vaughan Conservation Pipeline near
Fort Sumner
– Supply the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
roughly 1,500 AF/Y as needed (up to ≈ 13
cfs)
– Provides water to river at top of critical
habitat reach
– Important tool for compliance
PBNS Status in 2011
• Due to extraordinary drought
– River intermittency has occurred over
portion of critical habitat
– Despite enormous effort by Reclamation to
acquire additional water
• options extremely limited
– Agencies working collaboratively to protect
as much habitat as possible
• prepare for second consecutive dry year
Vaughan Pipeline Outfall
Vaughan Pipeline Discharge
Pecos Salinity Efforts
• New Mexico has long supported efforts to
reduce Pecos salinity:
– Malaga Bend well pumping in River Master
Manual (currently Southwest Salt)
– Ongoing support for WRDA
• annual letters to delegation asking for support
• Memorials passed by State Legislature
– Ongoing water quality monitoring from
augmentation well fields
• WRDA support on Rio Grande
– Provided initial seed money ($250K) to initiate the
§ 729 activities by the ACOE
Triggers for Well Field Operation
(in terms of Project supply available to CID)
•
•
•
•
•
March 1
May 1
June 1
July 15
September 1
50,000 AF (Determined Nov 1)
60,000 AF (Determined Mar 1)
65,000 AF (Determined May 1)
75,000 AF (Determined Jun 1)
90,000 AF (Determined Jul 15)
Where Are We This Year?
Pecos Settlement Augmentation Triggers
Projection
Date
November 1
March 1
May 1
June 1
July 15
2010
Supply on Required
Target Supply Target Date Pumping
Target Date
(AF)
(AF)
(AF)
March 1
50,000
55,516
0
May 1
60,000
74,918
0
June 1
65,000
90,163
0
July 15
75,000
98,228
0
September 1
90,000
113,415
0
2011
Supply on
Target
Date (AF)
53,659
52,475
51,180
53,977*
49,371
Required
Pumping (AF)
0
7,525
13,820
21,023
40,629**
Information for this table was taken from pages 11 and 12 of the Settlement Agreement
*Value used for projection and supply from July 5 instead of July 15 due to ongoing block release
** Value is larger than maximum pumping allowed by Settlement of 35,000 AF in one year