Another Source of Sustainable and Reliable Drinking Water
The BDD Project provides a fourth source of water, improving the regional water supply under drought conditions, replacing current groundwater pumping that cannot be sustained, and making a drought reserve possible.
The City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County constructed the BDD to add this source of water by diverting and treating water available from the Rio Grande that we already own but cannot access through groundwater pumping. The BDD Project created the infrastructure required to fully use the City’s and County’s permanent yearly supply of the San Juan-Chama Project water, which is about half of the Santa Fe community’s current total annual water use. The BDD also accesses native Rio Grande water rights owned by the County, and The Club at Las Campanas and The Las Campanas Water Cooperative.
This new water supply source is reliable, sustainable and provides flexibility in how we choose to use the different supply sources for water delivery. Operation of all four sources will continue to meet the needs of City and County water system customers, improve the regional public water supply under drought conditions, replace unsustainable groundwater pumping and making a drought reserve possible. The city does not anticipate the need for additional water supplies until after 2030.
