Albuquerque surface water production has its best month ever

The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority’s San Juan-Chama river diversion scooped up 7,443 acre feet of water from the Rio Grande in July, the best month ever for the project, according to the Utility’s month-end report to the Office of State Engineer.

The system’s operators have been running it full blast this summer, hoping to use as much river water as they can before a likely curtailment later this month as drought drops the levels on the Rio Grande. The water is taken from a diversion dam near Alameda and pumped to a treatment plant at Renaissance Center before being distributed around the city. At some point in late August, the Water Utility will scale back to only withdrawing river water every few days, rather than ever day as it’s currently being done, according to Utility chief operating officer John Stomp.