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Abiquiu Reservoir, April 2013
Flows are increasing this afternoon on the Rio Chama, as Albuquerque begins releasing some of its water stored at Abiquiu to help out with middle valley drought conditions. (You can follow the increase at the USGS gauge.)
There are more details on the release and the reasons behind it in my column from this morning’s newspaper:
Under its water rights permits, Albuquerque is required to make up some of the water its groundwater pumping indirectly sucks out of the Rio Grande as the river flows through the metro area.
The most efficient way for Albuquerque to do that is to move the water in the dead of winter, when evaporation losses are lowest, sending it down to Elephant Butte to make up for the impact of pumping on the river.
Moving it now instead, Albuquerque will lose about 10 percent to 15 percent of it to evaporation, according to John Stomp, the Albuquerque water utility’s chief operating officer.
Reprint story -- Email the reporter at jfleck@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3916
