By Hannah Grover
Even though the Albuquerque area received rain last week, the drought conditions continue in New Mexico and water managers are urging residents to conserve.
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, which provides drinking water to most of Bernalillo County residents with the exception of the East Mountains area, is facing limited supplies of surface water.
“We’re not in a crisis in terms of drinking water supply for the community,” David Morris said.
However, the ABCWUA is concerned about the level of the Rio Grande. The water utility authority uses both surface water from the Colorado River Basin — which is delivered to the Rio Grande through the San Juan-Chama Project — and groundwater.
When surface flows in the Rio Grande are limited, the ABCWUA switches to groundwater supplies. Morris said the water utility authority is anticipating making that switch this year due to low snowpack.
“However, the groundwater supply we view as like a savings account. We draw upon it when we need it, and we try to use surface water as much as we can so that we can preserve that as a drought reserve,” he said
Amos Arber, a Xeriscape specialist with the ABCWUA, said because the groundwater is a “savings account,” it is “ incredibly important for everyone to try to conserve water and try to ease that strain on our aquifer.”
The easiest place to conserve water is outdoors. Arber said water that is used outside is only used once while the water that enters the municipal wastewater system can be recycled and reused.
One option to conserve water is to switch landscaping from water-intensive plants such as Kentucky blue grass to more drought-tolerant landscaping. Methods like Xeriscape can be used in those efforts.
“The water authority is not anti trees or plants or even anti lawn,” Arber said.
He said the ABCWUA is trying to reduce the inefficient watering of such plants. People who have lawns and want to keep their lawns can reduce the water usage by changing to high-efficiency sprinkler nozzles.
“A common problem is that the sprinklers are applying water at a rate that’s so quick that the soils have a chance to soak in, and then it runs off and waste the water,” Arber said.
Another option is to install a smart controller that will monitor weather and ensure the sprinklers don’t run when it is raining or windy.
The ABCWUA offers rebates to help people pay for some of those water conservation upgrades.
But, for people who choose to go the Xeriscape route, the agency has a guide that will help them pick the best plants for their area. Customers can also receive a rebate if they switch from a lawn to Xeriscape landscaping.
“We have all these great rebates to help incentivize some of these better landscape practices,” Arber said.