El Vado Dam faces further construction delays

A key dam for Middle Rio Grande Valley farmers has been out of commission for over a year as it undergoes a $33 million rehabilitation project. But the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced at a Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District meeting in May that the rehabilitation plan will not work and a new plan needs to be created.

It will be at least three years before construction on a new plan can begin, Jennifer Faler, area manager for the bureau‘s Albuquerque office, told the conservancy district board. In the meantime, the Bureau of Reclamation is trying to find alternative locations to store water.

“I find this highly unusual that the Bureau would switch horses in midstream and we don’t know which horse we’re getting on, but to give up on a preferred alternative that was the result of 12 years of studies and analysis is quite a shock to me as an engineer and a board member here,” MRGCD Director John Kelly told Faler during the conservancy district meeting. “We had multiple assurances that we’re going to have water 2027, 2028, 2029, and this just keeps moving out.”

“Agreed this is very unusual for an engineering agency like the Bureau of Reclamation to have gotten to this point,” Faler said. “So, No. 1, lesson learned. No. 2, I am a strong believer in the project manager business process, and we did not have a single project manager on this process and we will, and it will be in Albuquerque. And not placing any blame anywhere; this was a difficult undertaking of challenges.”

The El Vado project was under the Bureau of Reclamation’s Denver Office, which oversees 26 dams, Faler said. Moving forward, the El Vado rehabilitation instead will be under Reclamation’s Albuquerque Office.

Reclamation is looking at what happened for the project to come to this point, Faler told the MRGCD directors.

“We had a consultant review board. Six members of outside community looking over our shoulder. How in the world was this missed, or was it just impossible to have caught it?” Faler said.

Lower water levels reveal a dam in disrepair

Better hold your hat across the top of the El Vado Dam. Wind picks up on the one-lane dirt road, the end of Highway 112, across the top of the dam. The last 20 feet is a bridge overlooking a dry spillway.

North of Santa Fe on the Chama River, El Vado is a 90-year-old, 230-foot dam that in the past has been an important tool for holding back water to distribute to Middle Rio Grande Valley farmers who rely on irrigation.

One side of the dam is covered by a steel faceplate, a feature few earthen dams in the world have. A patina of rust has turned much of the faceplate red since it was built in the 1930s. Large ripples in the metal stretch across several sections of the dam. A shiny section near the top is where steel panels were recently replaced.

A couple stops their Toyota on the bridge to ask Chama Field Office Facility Manager Bill Russom when work on the dam will be done. In roughly 20 years, Russom hadn’t seen the water level at El Vado so low.

For many years, large sections of the faceplate hadn’t been seen up close, until the water level was lowered to begin construction.

Empty swing stages, a type of mobile scaffolding, hang alongside the faceplate. A pair of hawks fly overhead, casting shadows across the steel.

Construction that began in 2022 was paused on El Vado in March. Reclamation lowered the water level in El Vado to do foundation grouting. When the reservoir was lowered, there was an opportunity to study the support structures behind the faceplate, Faler told the MRGCD directors, and engineers grew more and more concerned about its structural support. The grouting was deforming the faceplate, Faler said, and in some spots, there was a gap between the angle irons that support the faceplate and the soil beneath.

Multiple attempts to apply backfill grouting have failed, according to a news release.

Mud near the bottom of the dam is wet and suction-like. The lake water is muddy and the surface is empty — no boats to be seen. Dead reeds reach from uncovered banks, where the water once was much higher.

The reservoir water is so low that two intake structures can be seen sticking up above it. The larger one belongs to Reclamation and is used to release water from the reservoir downstream. The smaller belongs to Los Alamos County Power Plant and can’t be used with the water level so low.

The reservoir is also important for the six Rio Grande pueblos and is one of the most important tools the state has to meet water delivery requirements under the Rio Grande Compact, Roque Sánchez, senior advisor to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, told the MRGCD board.

The Rio Grande Compact is an agreement between New Mexico, Colorado and Texas on how to divide the water of the Rio Grande. New Mexico currently owes Texas water.

The dam is long past its 50-year life span, and Reclamation wants to rebuild it so that the structure can last another 100 years, Sánchez said.

From 2007 to 2019, the Bureau of Reclamation studied El Vado, trying to create a plan to reduce seepage — water slowly escaping from the dam — and reduce the risk of failure of the spillway. The bureau first tried a seepage reduction modification project. The $31 million plan was the least expensive of several options.

The rehabilitation project was funded by federal appropriations for dam safety projects and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, according to Reclamation spokesperson Pacifica Cesares-Chehy. MRGCD is supposed to repay 15% of the cost once the project is complete.

In 2021, a construction contract was awarded to CARPI USA Inc. Including modifications, the contract obligation is $33.5 million. A termination of convenience settlement is in process, according to Cesares-Chehy, to figure out the final cost of the contract. When the government terminates contracts for convenience, it is supposed to fairly reimburse the contractor for the work that has been done with a termination of convenience settlement.

El Vado Dam

How will the dam ultimately be repaired?

Reclamation does not know yet what process will be used to repair the dam but is planning for a streamlined construction.

“We are less inclined to try anything risky again. We are more inclined to choose something tried and true,” Faler said.

MRGCD will make an official request to only be responsible for 15% of the new alternative project cost, its CEO Jason Casuga said. That would leave Reclamation responsible for the full cost of the failed project.

Faler said that she would like construction on the new project to begin within three years, but six years is more typical for a dam project such as this.

Where will water be stored while El Vado is being rehabilitated?

Some water likely can be stored at El Vado after the current construction work is buttoned up and before new construction begins. The reservoir initially will be refilled to figure out the safe water storage capacity, according to Casares-Chehy, and Reclamation should be able to figure out by January 2025 how much water can be stored there in between construction projects .

The state and Reclamation are also trying to secure other locations for water storage. The state is working on making Abiquiu Lake a place where water native to the Middle Rio Grande Basin could be stored, State Engineer Mike Hamman said.

Abiquiu Lake is primarily used for San Juan-Chama storage. The San Juan-Chama Project brings water from the San Juan River into the Rio Grande watershed to help supplement it through tunnels. If there is longer carryover storage in Heron Lake for San Juan Chama water, it could free up space to store Rio Grande water in Abiquiu Lake. The State Engineer’s Office needs to figure out how to permit MRGCD water storage in Abiquiu Lake, Hamman said.

The state also needs to work with Middle Rio Grande pueblos so that all reservoir storage can be considered in tandem, Hamman said.