Challenges and Opportunities for Brackish
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CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR BRACKISH GROUNDWATER- RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN NEW MEXICO—PREDICTION HYDRO-SCIENCE FROM AN OCTOGENARIAN HYDROGEOLOGIST’S PERSPECTIVE Introduction to Part-2 of Invited Presentations on Desalination Science/Technology (Mike Hightower, SNL) and New Mexico’s Brackish Groundwater Resources to the Urban Land Institute-New Mexico Section, April 28, 2016 John W. Hawley, Ph.D., Emeritus Senior Environmental Geologist, N.M. Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, NMIMT Visiting Senior Hydrogeologist, N.M. Water Resources Research Institute, NMSU dba HAWLEY GEOMATTERS [email protected] P.O. Box 4370, Albuquerque, NM 87196-4370; Phone (o) 505-255-4847, (c) 505-263-6921 PREFACE This informal “white paper” introduces a pptx presentation on “Challenges and Opportunities for Brackish Groundwater-Resource Development in New Mexico,” and includes representative slides and an expanded list of background references. Most illustrations with a GoogleTMearth base have been designed by Baird Swanson of Swanson Geoscience, LLC; and all hydrogeologic maps and cross sections were initially created by HAWLEY GEOMATTERS for the N.M. Water Resources Research Institute Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Project (TAAP). Since exposure to water-based realities in our dryland-culture can be a bit depressing, I’ll try to keep my remarks as optimistic and moist as possible. Also, since bad-news bearers have often met bad ends throughout history, it’s prudent to avoid doom and gloom scenarios whenever I can. So, emphasis here will be on places where de-watered aquifer spaces can be replenished through timely application of state-of-the-art Aquifer Storage & Recovery (ASR) technology. Professional observations and opinions on the interlinkage of land, water, and energy resources reflects an early career in the New Mexico-West Texas region as a research geologist for the Soil Survey Investigations Division of the USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS-now NRCS), with field headquarters at NMSU-Las Cruces (1962-1971), Texas Tech University-Lubbock (1971- 1974), N.M. Tech-Socorro (1974-1975), and the SCS Western Regional Technical Service Center-Portland, OR (1975-1977). My final 20 years of public-sector work involved organizing and managing an environmental/engineering geology program for the Office of State Geologist at the State Bureau of Mines [now Geology] & Mineral Resources, a Division of N.M. Tech. Much of my work for the Bureau of Mines from 1991 to 1997 involved developing a new hydrogeologic model of the Albuquerque Basin’s aquifer system in collaboration with N.M. Tech, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and many private-sector entities. My somewhat curmudgeonly, but still very positive, personal outlook on current socio-economic affairs shouldn’t be too surprising. Principally, because it reflects a life that began when a Mining Engineer named Herbert Hoover was still President, 54+ years of married TLC from my best friend and severest critic, similar interaction with 3 Las Cruces-native kids and 3 grandkids, and fulltime work as a private consultant since November 1997. Considerable effort has been made to substantiate the accuracy of information contained in this document. However, the views expressed herein are strictly my own and do not necessarily reflect those of any entities, public or private that has sponsored and/or supported my research. 1 STATEWIDE PERSPECTIVE I currently recognize four multi-component “Groundwater basins” in New Mexico with 1) very large proven reserves of economically-recoverable water in the fresh to moderately brackish- quality range (<6,000 mg/L tds) and 2) excellent potential for ASR projects. In all cases, surface and subsurface waters in the fresh to moderately brackish range (<10,000 mg/L tds) are regarded as assets rather than liabilities. They are here informally named “Key-Opportunity Areas (K- OAs) for Brackish-Groundwater Development (BGWD) and ASR,” and comprise: 1. The Albuquerque Basin (Santa Fe Group intermontane basin-fill aquifer). 2. The middle Pecos River basin between the Santa Rosa and Carlsbad areas (mainly Permian carbonate-bedrock and Pecos Valley alluvial aquifers). 3. The Southern High Plains south of the Canadian River Valley (Ogallala aquifer) 4. The intermontane basin-fill (mostly Santa Fe Gp) aquifer systems of the southern Rio Grande rift region (including parts of the Palomas-Rincon, Jornada, Tularosa, Hueco and Mimbres Basins; and all of the binational Mesilla Basin). 2 THE MESILLA GROUNDWATER BASIN While each of the above-named aquifer systems has great potential for sustained groundwater- resource utilization, one of the best examples includes parts of the Mesilla Basin that extend southward from Las Cruces to beyond the International-Boundary corridor. Because of the below-listed factors, this area has great promise in terms of sustainable aquifer-development, and it serves as an excellent case study for an introductory Microsoft PowerPoint® presentation. 1. With a binational population of about 2,000,000, sustainability requires detailed hydrogeologic familiarity. 2. Hydrogeologic characterization of intermontane-basin fill (Santa Fe Group and Rio Grande alluvium) and underlying bedrock units is of very high quality; and much of this work is based on public-sector funded research (Federal, State, university, and local water-utilities) dating to the 1950s. Private-sector contributions (e.g. irrigation agriculture, and oil & gas- exploration and livestock/diary industries) have also been substantial. 3. A reliable perennial stream, the Rio Grande, runs through the basin and serves as the primary recharge source for basin-fill and bedrock aquifer systems. 4. With the exception of recharge from the Rio Grande and a few high-mountain areas, sustainable groundwater resources in the binational Mesilla Basin and Valley region of New Mexico, Texas, and Chihuahua are primarily replenished by underflow from local sources that are predominantly brackish. 5. The dominant Santa Fe Group basin-fill component (saturated and unsaturated) consists of permeable sand and gravelly sand deposited by the ancestral Rio Grande system and deeply buried sand-dunes. These sediments locally range from 500 to 1000 ft in thickness and underlie the ~500 sq. mi., Mesilla Basin “West Mesa” area west of the Mesilla Valley. 6. Conservative estimates of the amount of recoverable fresh to moderately brackish groundwater in storage is at least 60 million acre-feet. The medium- to course- texture, high permeability, and the relatively compact structure of the bulk of these sediments indicates that: 1) groundwater-pumping yields will be high (1,000 gpm range); 2) land-subsidence potential low; and 3) suitability for post-/co-development ASR is excellent. 7. Design and implementation of large-scale (mg/d) desalination operations can begin immediately, provided that the existing 25 mg/d desal facility operated by the El Paso Water Utility in the nearby western Hueco Bolson is used as a state-of-the-art working model. 8. Opportunities for both surface and subsurface disposal of desal-produced concentrate are excellent, provided that binational/tristate (NM, TX, and Chihuahua) cooperative agreements can be reached concerning development of shared groundwater resources and ASR sites. 9. Most of Mesilla Basin floor (West Mesa) west of the irrigated and urban/suburban lands of the inner Mesilla Valley has never been utilized except for livestock grazing and wildlife management. However, a 2014 National Monument designation without any consideration of groundwater-resource management concerns, now complicates effective planning. 10. Plausible future climate scenarios suggest that the regional precipitation-distribution pattern in the Upper Rio Grande basin could shift from the present winter-snow dominant in the basin’s Rocky Mountain highlands to the summer-monsoon storm conditions already prevalent in the Basin and Range terrain of the southern New Mexico border region. For example: Most of the Mesilla Basin floor is a flat dune-covered alluvial plain (long since abandoned by the ancestral Rio Grande) with no inter-connected surface drainage and numerous shallow closed depressions. As such, it already serves as an effective, but ephemeral source of groundwater recharge after extreme summer rainstorm events. 3 Some caveats 1. Doña Ana (NM) and El Paso (TX) Counties, an contiguous border areas in Chihuahua share many of the pitfalls of adverse environmental impacts on aquifer development that are associated with a binational population of about 2 million. 2. For example, a major source of potential groundwater contamination is the bi-state area of concentrated feedlot and industrial operations located along and west of the I-10 corridor at the eastern edge of the southern Mesilla Valley. 3. Another example relates to occurrences of anthropogenic “Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs)” that are now appearing on groundwater-contamination maps of “1,4- dioxane MRL exceedances” at M&I sites in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez and Santa Teresa-San Jerónimo (Suthersan et al. 2016, Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, 36/1, Fig. 1 [USEPA 2015 <http://water.epa.gov/lawregs/rulesregs/sdwa/ucmr/ucmr3/index.cfm>]).” PRIMARY INFORMATION SOURCES Much of the material used in compiling in this White Paper has been has been derived from New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute, Technical Completion Report No 363— “Hydrogeologic framework of the Mesilla Basin region of New Mexico, Texas,