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County staff outline 'Santa Fe 2100' water plan, modeling drought scenarios and dozens of adaptation strategies
Summary
Utilities staff briefed the board on Santa Fe 2100, a long‑range water planning effort with Hazen & Sawyer and the city to model supplies and demands to 2100; staff identified 38 adaptation strategies (conservation, reuse, groundwater storage, infrastructure resilience) and said technical modeling will run through winter/spring with final recommendations next summer/fall.
Brent Geist, Santa Fe County water resources manager, presented Santa Fe 2100 — a long‑range planning effort to evaluate future water demand and supply through the year 2100 under multiple climate scenarios. Geist said the county is working with the city and consultant Hazen & Sawyer to run technical models that will identify vulnerabilities and early indicators that would trigger policy reassessment.
"We want to eventually identify which adaptation strategies we should prioritize," Geist said, summarizing a staff list of 38 options grouped into conservation and demand management, reuse and recycling (including treated effluent), supply‑portfolio management, groundwater storage and aquifer recharge, and infrastructure resilience. He told the board staff would complete technical modeling this winter and spring and return next summer/fall with prioritized, data‑driven recommendations.
Commissioners used the briefing to press staff on whether the modeling could support a moratorium on development, how to value 'paper' water rights versus actual ('wet') water, and steps to involve pueblos, mutual‑domestic systems and acequias early in outreach. Geist said the county recently met with the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources and that a state‑funded airborne electromagnetic aquifer mapping project is planned for the fall to improve subsurface data.
Why it matters: the modeling and recommended strategies will inform whether and when the county must change development practices, water‑commitment policies, or infrastructure investments to safeguard supplies under drought and climate uncertainty.
