The Santa Fe Group aquifer is the main source of municipal water. The study began in 1995, and it is scheduled to be completed in 2000. 99KB Figure 1. Collecting water samples for environmental tracers from the Rio Grande north of Albuquerque.
Projects are underway to improve understanding of how water enters and moves through the aquifer.
Recharge where streams and arroyos enter the basin is being estimated by methods such as changes of ground-water temperature with aquifer depth, chemical tracer studies, laboratory examination of core samples, and streamflow measurements at multiple reaches. Ground-water temperature profiles of water in wells installed near the Rio Grande are being used to determine the volume of water passing between the river and the aquifer. Electromagnetic surveys of the inner valley of the Rio Grande were done to help map the extent of clay layers beneath the riverbed that retard recharge to the aquifer from the river. Depositional environments and grain size influence the permeability of rocks that make up the aquifer. Faults are studied in detail to determine the amount and timing of horizontal displacement and their effect on depositional patterns in the Santa Fe Group.