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;'1 "'.1 -,. 5:J :.'.1 h 1 -;'1 .:;: ", ;, ""r '., -,I - ~:.! J ii .~! ~'-i:~ :~ ", ..i -:-:'; " ""1 .... .;J .;. ~:-:.~ ;.' '., U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Upper Colorado Region - Albuquerque Area Office 1998 Calendar Year Report to the Rio Grande Compact Commission INTRODUCTION The Albuquerque Area Office of the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is responsible for operation, maintenance, and/or oversight of four projects on the mainstem of the Rio Grande and its upper basin tributaries. These projects are: the San Luis Valley Project, the San Juan-Chama Project, the Middle Rio Grande Project, and the Rio Grande Project. The San Luis Valley Project consists of the Conejos Division with Platoro Reservoir, which provides water for about 86,000 acres within Conejos Conservancy District lands. The Closed Basin Division is a ground water salvage project located near Alamosa, Colorado which pumps water that would otherwise be lost through evapotranspiration, from a shallow, unconfined aquifer. The San Juan-Chama Project consists of a system of diversion structures and tunnels for transbasin movement of water from the San Juan River Basin to the Rio Grande Basin, as a component of the Colorado River Storage Project. The San Juan-Chama Project provides water from storage in Heron Reservoir for municipal, domestic, industrial, recreation, and fish and wildlife purposes within the State of New Mexico as well as supplemental water for irrigation. Another component of the project is the Pojoaque Irrigation Unit and Nambe Falls Dam. The Unit provides water for about 2,800 acres in the Pojoaque Valley. The Middle Rio Grande Project consists of EI Vado Dam and Reservoir and irrigation and drainage facilities in the middle Rio Grande valley. The project entails river channel maintenance from Velarde, New Mexico, southward to Caballo Reservoir. It also includes the Low Flow Conveyance Channel south of San Acacia, New Mexico. Irrigation water is supplied to about 90,000 acres within the Middle Rio Grande valley served by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. The Rio Grande Project includes Elephant Butte and Caballo Reservoirs and irrigation and drainage facilities in the lower Rio Grande valley of southern New Mexico to just south of EI Paso, Texas. The project provides an agricultural water supply for about 178,000 acres of land within the Elephant Butte Irrigation District in New Mexico, and the EI Paso County Water Improvement District NO.1 in Texas. Water is also provided for diversion to Mexico by the International Boundary and Water Commission-United States Section. Drainage waters from the Rio Grande Project lands provide a supplemental supply for about 18,000 acres of land within the Hudspeth County Conservation and Reclamation District NO.1 in Texas. Elephant Butte Dam also provides generation of electrical power for communities and industries in southern New Mexico. -1-