Learn about DBS&A’s most recent recharge project from Project Hydrogeologist, Amy Ewing P.G., and meet Senior Engineer, conference organizer, and session moderator, Jennifer Hill, P.E., and Engineering Intern, Chase Stearnes, at the DBS&A exhibit at the New Mexico Water Workshop on April 18 and 19, 2019, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This year’s workshop theme is “Water Portfolio: Then, Now, Tomorrow.”

DBS&A and Jacobs will each make a presentation in a two-part session about the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority’s Drinking Water Treatment Plant (DWTP) Large-Scale Recharge Demonstration Project. Ms. Ewing will present “Banking Water for the Future,” followed by Wendy Christofferson, P.E., from Jacobs who will present on “Construction and Demonstration Testing.”

This project is designed to store water in the aquifer to establish a drought reserve as a water resources management strategy. The demonstration facilities include one aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) well, and one vadose zone well.  Both wells are the first of their kind in New Mexico.

The Water Authority will inject water when system demands are low and will recover it in the future either during times of high demand or drought. This recharge demonstration is regulated by the New Mexico Office of the State Engineering (NMOSE) under Underground Storage and Recovery permit USR-4, and the New Mexico Environment Department Ground Water Quality Bureau (NMED DWB) under discharge permit DP-1887.

Ms. Ewing’s presentation will discuss the planning, permitting, and design phases of this project, including design considerations for pump selection, and conveyance piping to accommodate transmission of treated surface water to both wells and recovered water from the ASR well. Ms. Christofferson’s presentation will provide an overview of the construction of the recharge facilities completed under two separate contracts. The first contract included drilling and construction of the wells. The second contract consisted of equipping the wells, including installation of a submersible well pump, conveyance piping, aboveground piping with valves, instruments and controls, and building enclosing wellhead piping and controls.

The demonstration project, which will test, document, and recommend operations to optimize injection rates, began in March 2019. The demonstration project will inform the scope of the full-scale project, which will recharge up to 5,000 acre-feet per year of treated surface water from the San Juan-Chama DWTP.

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Click here for more information on the conference.