Santa Fe water director says city expects enough supply this year despite low snowpack

Director Roach told the City of Santa Fe Public Works & Utilities Committee on Feb. 16 that, despite a below-average snowpack and dry winter conditions, the city expects to have enough water to meet demand this year while continuing conservation messaging and planning.

Roach outlined the city’s four supplies — Santa Fe River water treated at the Canyon Road Water Treatment Plant, the city well field, the Buckman well field, and the Buckman Direct Diversion (BDD) — and noted reclaimed water is used for irrigation of turf, golf courses and parks. He said total production peaked at about 13,000 acre-feet in 1995 and has since fallen to roughly 9,000 acre-feet annually, while population served has risen from about 70,000 to roughly 90,000 people.

“We will have enough water to meet our demand this year,” Roach said, explaining that the city has about 10,000 acre-feet stored in San Juan–Chama reservoirs (Abiquiu, El Vado and Heron) and about 1,900 acre-feet in local watershed storage. He said the city expects roughly 2,200 acre-feet of inflow to the local watershed this season and will rely primarily on surface water with wells available as a drought backup.

Roach described a Water Resources Indicator (WRI) the city uses to guide conservation messaging: the index combines 30% drought-monitor data, 40% groundwater health, and 30% reservoir availability to yield a 0–10 score. He said Santa Fe’s current WRI is about 6.5, which indicates the city is “in pretty good shape” but that officials will continue standard conservation messaging and may allocate additional outreach resources if the WRI falls below 6.

Councilors asked for practical guidance tied to the WRI. Roach said that within the 6–8 band the city typically maintains standard irrigation-hour rules and general conservation messaging, while lower scores would trigger more aggressive conservation measures and targeted budgeting for outreach. He noted the Canyon Road treatment plant will operate at roughly half capacity during construction this year, and that the city plans operations around leaning on BDD through June and increased well production in late summer if river conditions warrant.

On longer-term monitoring, Roach described efforts to improve snowpack forecasting by adding representative SNOTEL sites and partnering with university researchers to better scale point snow measurements to the 17,000-acre watershed. He said the Bureau of Reclamation models and weekly interagency planning meetings inform the city’s preliminary operations plan, which will be revisited and shared with the governing body and public in April and again by May when runoff forecasts are more certain.

Roach also addressed concerns about Colorado River negotiations and the San Juan–Chama project, saying the city is coordinating closely with the state and other San Juan–Chama contractors and exploring a reuse project to return treated wastewater to the supply bucket for exchange.

The committee did not take formal action on the briefing; Roach said staff will provide updates as snowpack and runoff forecasts firm up in spring.