Water

The City of Albuquerque’s $400 million San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project  began delivering water in 2008.

The project involved building a 600-foot diversion dam on the Rio Grande, pumping water to a treatment plant and then piping treated water to reservoirs around the city. By using river water from the San Juan-Chama Diversion Project, which began in 1963, the city can relieve its historic dependence on wells. Its components included 38 miles of distribution pipeline (some of it underneath the Rio Grande itself), an adjustable diversion dam and intake structure, a Raw Water Pump Station on the Rio Grande, eight miles of raw water pipeline to transport water from the Raw Water Pump Station, and a $160 million Water Treatment Plant.

The San Juan-Chama Diversion project began in 1963 when visionary city leaders voted to acquire Colorado River water for future needs. Albuquerque owns 48,200 acre-feet of project water, and about a dozen other communities, tribes and irrigation organizations also own water.

For this project, Albuquerque won a World Leadership Award in late 2006 from the World Leadership Forum. The prestigious international prize recognizes cities that have shown exceptional imagination, foresight or resilience in dealing with major challenges.

See:   http://www.abcwua.org/content/view/31/24/