Albuquerque's aquifer recharging
Good news for Albuquerque. The city’s vast underground water, the aquifer, supply is making a comeback. It's actually growing in a time of severe drought.
Three reasons for the turnaround: conservation, re-use, and surface water flowing in through a big muddy open pipe they call the Rio Grande.
It’s that San Juan-Chama water that gets diverted into the Rio Grande, then treated and cleaned up and pumped into Albuquerque’s water system. During the drought the city-county Water Authority goes back to pumping groundwater in the hot months, but the aquifer is still recharging.
“We’re starting to see the aquifer begin to come back,” said Water Authority chief John Stomp. “ It was dropping two to five feet a year in some places, and it’s starting to come back up. We’re still trying to protect the aquifer for the long term.”
