Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
Integrated Water Management Strategies for the City and County of El Paso
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Hutchison, Bill |
| Copyright Year | 2006 |
| Abstract | Current water supplies for El Paso County, Texas include the Rio Grande, local groundwater and reclaimed water. Potential future supplies include imported groundwater from other parts of Far West Texas. Regional water planning in Texas began with the passage of Senate Bill 1 in 1997. The state was divided into 16 regions for the purposes of developing regional water plans that would eventually be integrated into a single state wide water plan. El Paso County lies within the Far West Texas Region (Region E). In 2001, the first regional plan was developed that included demand estimates for through 2050, current supplies, and identified deficits, or imbalances between current supplies and future demands. For El Paso County, the 2001 plan identified the deficits and provided several potential alternatives to meet the increasing demands that had been projected. During the second round of planning that led to an updated regional plan in 2006, considerable effort was made to develop a specific plan to meet future demands through 2060. The 2006 regional plan included the development of six alternative integrated strategies that include local surface water, local groundwater, expansion of reclaimed water and imported groundwater. The 2006 regional plan provided for meeting all future non agricultural demands in El Paso County through the adoption of Alternative 6, which includes the continued conjunctive use of local surface and groundwater resources, expansion of conservation, expansion of reclaimed water use, and the importation of groundwater from the Dell City area and from the Capitan Reef Aquifer, located southeast of Dell City. Other potential imported supplies identified in other alternatives in Culberson, Jeff Davis and Presidio Counties will not be used prior to 2060 under the adopted alternative. Past and Current Water Supplies Since the beginning of the 20 century, El Paso County has relied on both surface water and groundwater for municipal water supply. Currently, El Paso Water Utilities (EPWU) supplies about 90% of all municipal water in El Paso County (Far West Texas Regional Planning Group, hereinafter FWTRPG, 2006). Surface water is supplied from the Rio Grande (Figure 1). The Rio Grande flows that are diverted in the El Paso area are primarily derived from snowmelt runoff in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Historically, there are also occasional flood surges associated with storm systems in the summer monsoon season. Spring runoff is stored in Elephant Butte Reservoir in southern New Mexico before releases are made for irrigation and municipal use in southern New Mexico and the El Paso area. EPWU is a customer of the local irrigation district (El Paso County Water Improvement District No.1), and obtains water through ownership of water rights land and leasing of water rights from agricultural water rights holders in El Paso County. Figure 1. Rio Grande and Elephant Butte Reservoir Groundwater supplies are pumped from the Mesilla Bolson and the Hueco Bolson (Figure 2). The Los Muertos Bolson, adjacent to the Mesilla Bolson is also shown. These groundwater basins underlie portions of New Mexico, Texas and Chihuahua (Creel and others, 2006). Groundwater occurs in unconsolidated fluvial, alluvial, and lacustrine sediments. The Rio Grande plays an important role in the recharge and discharge of both groundwater basins. Annual production from each of these sources is summarized in Figure 3. Figure 2. Location of Hueco Bolson, Mesilla Bolson and Los Muertos Bolson 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000 19 67 19 69 19 71 19 73 19 75 19 77 19 79 19 81 19 83 19 85 19 87 19 89 19 91 19 93 19 95 19 97 19 99 20 01 20 03 20 05 Year Su pp ly (A F/ yr ) Hueco Mesilla Rio Grande Figure 3. History of EPWU Supplies from Groundwater (Hueco Bolson and Mesilla Bolson) and Surface Water (Rio Grande) EPWU pumping in the Hueco Bolson peaked at about 80,000 acre-feet per year (AF/yr) in 1989. As a result of concerns regarding the long-term ability to continue this level of pumping (e.g. Muller and Price, 1979 and Boyle Engineering, 1991), EPWU implemented the following water management strategies: 1) adopted a rate structure that increases the cost of water for high use, 2) promoted water conservation through various incentive programs, 3) increased the use of Rio Grande Water, and 4) expanded the reuse of reclaimed water. EPWU pumping in the Hueco Bolson in 2002 was below 40,000 AF/yr for the first time since 1967. Hueco pumping increased in 2003 and 2004 from 2002 levels due to a drought and the associated reduction in surface water diversions. Pumping again dropped below 40,000 AF/yr in 2005 as a result of a return of nearly full river allocation conditions. The conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater (increasing groundwater pumping in times of surface water shortages) to meet overall demands is part of EPWU’s overall water supply strategy. The surface water plants have a combined capacity of 100 mgd. Under normal river flow conditions, the plants operate seven months during the year (i.e. during the irrigation season). EPWU is a customer of El Paso County Water Improvement District No.1, and receives water from the Rio Grande Project via its ownership of lands within the project area or through leases from water rights holders. Currently, El Paso has water rights of about 65,000 AF/yr from the Rio Grande Project (FWTRPG, 2006). Total demand has been declining since the late 1990s due to conservation and pricing strategies. Current total demand is about 110,000 AF/yr. Per capita demand has been reduced from about 225 gallons per person per day in the 1970s to about 137 gallons per person per day in 2005. Regional Planning Process The regional planning process for the State of Texas was initiated in 1997 via adoption of Senate Bill 1 (SB1). The state was divided into sixteen regions (Figure 4), and a Regional Water Planning Group was formed in each of these regions. El Paso lies within the Far West Texas Region (Region E). Figure 4. Regional Planning Areas in Texas Every five years, each Regional Water Planning Group develops a water management plan that covers regional water supplies and demands for a 50-year period. The Texas Water Development Board uses these sixteen regional plans in the development of a state water plan. The initial regional water plans were developed in 2001, and in January, 2006 each region developed its first update. The next state water plan is due to the legislature in January, 2007. The 2006 Region E plan identified, in detail, the expected population growth and expected water demands through 2060. The Texas Water Development Board provided these data to the regional planning group. The plan also identified current water supplies. Where expected demands were greater than existing supplies, the plan identified strategies to close the supply deficit. These strategies were wide ranging, and included relatively low-cost measures such as conservation, and relatively high-cost measures such as construction of pipelines to transfer water within the region. The 2006 Region E plan contained an integrated strategy for El Paso County that recognized the continued local conjunctive management of surface and groundwater, continued conservation, and expansion of reclaimed water use. The integrated strategy also identified alternatives for transfer of water from properties currently owned by EPWU in Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, and Presidio Counties. Some alternatives considered the transfer of water from within the Hudspeth County Underground Water Conservation District No. 1 (HCUWCD) in the Dell City area. Although El Paso does not currently own land within HCUWCD boundaries, there has been substantial interest in the area due to its favorable hydrogeology and long history of groundwater pumping for irrigation without extensive groundwater level declines. Summary of Integrated Water Management Strategies for El Paso County The recently completed Regional Water Plan included a study of alternative means of supplying nonagricultural water to El Paso County through the year 2060 (FWTRPG, 2006 and Gooch and others, 2006). Based on current capacities of wells and surface water plants, and the limitation that surface water is only available during the irrigation season, total available municipal supply in El Paso County is about 150,000 AF/yr (FWTRPG, 2006). This total includes about 5,000 AF/yr of reclaimed water supply that is available independent of drought conditions. Under full surface water allocation conditions, municipal surface water supply is about 60,000 AF/yr. Under these conditions, Hueco Bolson groundwater pumping supply is about 50,000 AF/yr, and Mesilla Bolson pumping supply is about 35,000 AF/yr for the entire County (FWTRPG, 2006). Under drought-of-record conditions, it is expected that surface water supplies would drop to 10,000 AF/yr. During drought-of-record conditions, pumping supplies in the Hueco Bolson increase to 90,000 AF/yr and Mesilla Bolson pumping supplies increase to 45,000 AF/yr in order to maintain the full supply of 150,000 AF/yr. Figure 5 summarizes these conjunctive use scenarios. Scenario 1 represents a full surface water allocation scenario. Scenario 6 represents a drought-of-record scenario. Scenarios 2 through 5 represent intermediate surface water allocation scenarios that are less than full allocation, but more than drought-of-record conditions. 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 85,000 90,000 35,000 35,000 35,000 35,000 40,000 45,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000 110,000 120,000 130,000 140,000 150,000 160,000 1 2 3 4 5 6 Scenario A cr eFe et /y r Reclaimed Hueco Mesilla Rio Grande Figure 5. Current Conjunctive Use Supplies in El Paso County The conjunctive use management of surface water and groundwater resources in El |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1054&context=ucowrconfs_2006&httpsredir=1&referer= |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
