We were able to take an actual personal day, yesterday, and visit some places that I'd never seen before along the Jemez River, and places that I hadn't seen in more than a decade (Jemez Caldera, El Valle). We stopped first at the White Rock overlook, for a nice shot of the
Buckman Diversion intake on the Rio Grande, where the soon-to-be constructed bladder dam will be finished, so that Santa Fe can start diverting its "share" of SanJuan/Chama water (~5000 afy). But let's be honest, it's not new water, it's a substitution: surface water for the groundwater pumps currently operating in the Buckman field. Is it a better choice? The Buckman plan does use at least a renewable (surface) water supply, in lieu of an unsustainable (groundwater) withdrawal rate in the area west of the city. For me, it's a bit like changing drugs, from heroine to something lesser, say cigarrettes...or changing dealers. Not surprisingly, Las Campanas, one of the primary "corporate" beneficiaries of the Buckman plan, will no longer be part of the partnership with the city or the county (S Fe). Will they get water? You bet. It is not unlike the so-called
Southern Delivery System, aka "Colorado Springs southern straw," in that my fair city is mainlining from the Pueblo Reservoir for the future (development). Note the map that illustrates the "local delivery system" - a complex system of massive pipes that will travel through a beautiful valley to the south of the city. Can cities be considered parasites?
We then did a long drive along 4, through the Jemez Caldera, along the south rim of the El Valle area (a national preserve) that used to be the 89,000 acre Baca Ranch, and then down the stretch of the Jemez that goes through the eponymous Springs, Jemez State Monument (Giusewa Pueblo, abandoned ca 1692), and through Jemez Pueblo itself. It was good to see the
Soda Dam as well, a feature I hadn't seen since
Steve Hall's 1998 Geomorphology of the Southwest course (at UT). Much of the Jemez fields were fallow, but it was clear that some standing dry corn, and some existing pasture, were still being irrigated. It's a stunning area and one to re-visit soon.
At the 3/4 point of our loop, we entered through the 550 into Bernalillo, and we had to share this photo of the residential-industrial complex. Witness the earth-movers of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, creators of big boxes (near you) and new fauxdobe cul-de-sac units. But it's too easy to blame this on suburbia, or developers, when the root and ultimate cause remains our very nature, and our reluctance to stop procreating.
We were able to take an actual personal day, yesterday, and visit some places that I'd never seen before along the Jemez River, and places that I hadn't seen in more than a decade (Jemez Caldera, El Valle). We stopped first at the White Rock overlook, for a nice shot of the Buckman Diversion intake on the Rio Grande, where the soon-to-be constructed bladder dam will be finished, so that Santa Fe can start diverting its "share" of SanJuan/Chama water (~5000 afy). But let's be honest, it's not new water, it's a substitution: surface water for the groundwater pumps currently operating in the Buckman field. Is it a better choice? The Buckman plan does use at least a renewable (surface) water supply, in lieu of an unsustainable (groundwater) withdrawal rate in the area west of the city. For me, it's a bit like changing drugs, from heroine to something lesser, say cigarrettes...or changing dealers. Not surprisingly, Las Campanas, one of the primary "corporate" beneficiaries of the Buckman plan, will no longer be part of the partnership with the city or the county (S Fe). Will they get water? You bet. It is not unlike the so-called Southern Delivery System, aka "Colorado Springs southern straw," in that my fair city is mainlining from the Pueblo Reservoir for the future (development). Note the map that illustrates the "local delivery system" - a complex system of massive pipes that will travel through a beautiful valley to the south of the city. Can cities be considered parasites?
We then did a long drive along 4, through the Jemez Caldera, along the south rim of the El Valle area (a national preserve) that used to be the 89,000 acre Baca Ranch, and then down the stretch of the Jemez that goes through the eponymous Springs, Jemez State Monument (Giusewa Pueblo, abandoned ca 1692), and through Jemez Pueblo itself. It was good to see the Soda Dam as well, a feature I hadn't seen since Steve Hall's 1998 Geomorphology of the Southwest course (at UT). Much of the Jemez fields were fallow, but it was clear that some standing dry corn, and some existing pasture, were still being irrigated. It's a stunning area and one to re-visit soon.
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