NM Water Crisis @ Heron Lake with Michael Aune (10/22/2012)
Channel: 0ccupyNewMexico
Date: 2012-10-23

The ongoing drought in New Mexico and Colorado has diminished the availability of surface water conveyed to NM cities, towns and pueblos through the San Juan-Chama water diverson project. Led by Santa Fe water activist Michael Aune, on Monday, October 22, we visited several key points in the San Juan-Chama project to assess the impact of the drought. On this visit to Heron Lake, Aune estimated that the water level has dropped 7 or 8 feet from his previous visit 3 weeks ago. 

Heron Lake is the main water storage facility for the San Juan-Chama project. The San Juan-Chama Project taps the water of the Rio Blanco, Navajo and Little Navajo Rivers via a series of small diversion dams, tunnels and siphons. It accounts for about half of the water used by the city and county of Santa Fe, as well as up to 48,200 acre-feet of water used annually by Albuquerque.