Public Works and Utilities Committee Mon, Aug 17, 2026 · Public Works and Utilities Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/973-public-works-aug-17-2026 == Executive Summary == The Public Works and Utilities Committee received an update on the San Juan Chama Return Flow Project. William Schneider, Water Resources Manager, explained that the project is nearing the completion of its permitting process, with the environmental assessment soon to be published for public comment by the Bureau of Reclamation. This project is critical for maximizing the city's San Juan Chama water allocation by enabling the reuse of two-thirds of the city's water that currently enters the sewer system after initial use. It is considered Santa Fe's approach to indirect potable reuse and is a key solution identified in the Santa Fe Basin Study to address climate change impacts on water supply. The project involves a pipeline that will bring water directly below the Buckman Direct Diversion, maintaining its San Juan Chama designation. Santa Fe County has the option to invest in the project, which would grant them 7% of the water for 7% of the expenditure. The committee was informed that this project is vital for increasing future water supply, building upon the city's successful water conservation efforts. The agenda and consent agenda were both approved unanimously. == Motions & Votes == - Approval of Agenda — Passed unanimously - Approval of Consent Agenda — Passed unanimously == Public Comment == No public comment period == Topics == - San Juan Chama Return Flow Project - Water Conservation - Water Supply Resiliency - Buckman Direct Diversion - Regional Water Collaboration - Water System History - Infrastructure Updates - Funding and Costs - Environmental Assessment == Full Transcript == Madam Chair, Councilor Travis, we are live. Thank you. Alright. I call to order the Public Works and Utilities Committee meeting. It is August 17, 2026. It is 5:03. Could I get a roll call, please? Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Alright. We have a quorum. Next is approval of the agenda. Are there any changes from staff? Can I get a motion, please? Motion to approve. Second. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes. Approval of the consent agenda. Was there anything pulled from committee? Motion to approve. Second. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes. Next is public comment. Is there anyone in chambers that would like to come up today and discuss any matters with the committee? Seeing none. Presentations. San Juan Chama Return Flow Project permit status update. William Schneider, Water Resources Manager. And I will turn it over to you. Thanks for being here. Thank you, Chair and members of the committee. The purpose of me being here today for the committee is really to hit on two key points. We're nearing the finish line on this project relative to the permitting process. What that effectively means is that the Bureau of Reclamation, which is the lead federal agency—there are three federal agencies, which is partly why this project is the lead—will be publishing this environmental assessment for this project for public comment. And I clearly wanted to make sure that every governing body official is aware that that was out on the street. So I'm going to walk through sort of the schedule. We had an interesting conversation regarding this project at the Buckman Direct Diversion Board meeting recently. So I added a little context versus presenting basically the schedule, next steps regarding the permitting, and then some grant funding that we've received. So, Eric Chavez, if accessible to you and the board, I could provide—I have 10 slides with some backup. But if you're very familiar with the project, I could just get right to the schedule. I think we could review the slides. I think it would be helpful. One place to start, you know, sometimes we forget how projects have a history. And so there's a resolution, 2019-56, that ties to several things that sort of guide the Water Division staff to the planning and specific aspects of this particular project. So I want to reference it in case any of the councilors were not familiar with this. I'll gladly email it at the end of the meeting. But it does basically direct staff, just to get right to it, it goes through the "whereas" is the long history to this project. This was not conceived by two people in a dark room. This went through a very rigorous process led under the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's WaterSMART program, and it led to what was called the Santa Fe Basin Study. From that, it looked at—it was one of the first studies in the United States that looked at the effects of climate impacts on future hydrology and how do we plan for potential shortages. Doing so then led to a sequence of subsequent projects that led to a feasibility study and a selection of this particular project. They went through the rigors of what we call the triple bottom line analysis. Not only looked at how much water could be obtained for certain costs, metric gain, dollars spent for gallon gained, we also looked at reliability, but also environmental benefit and cultural benefits. There are aspects of this project that are unique. Regarding the resolution, and again, for the background, it does direct us basically, water and staff to—I just highlight this here—but it basically says, "Maximize the city's allocation of San Juan Chama water by implementing the design and construction of a return flow pipeline, including wiring the necessary state and federal permits." And then, "while evaluating other feasible"—just want to point this out, and I'll touch on why—"options for water reuse as well as address the concern of downstream users." Not there, right? Like, we are packaging a very complicated. I view it as a regional project. I call this project Santa Fe's version of indirect potable reuse. I'm going to explain why I do. So I may then shift to slides. This slide, I think we've seen it every talk, and it—I call it the helicopter view of Santa Fe's water supply footprint. And the key point, I won't spend a lot of time on it, but what's important to know is the San Juan Chama project was inaccessible for many years. The city—the project was built in 1971. What's fascinating to me is I've worked with Marcos Martinez, is the first mention of a pipeline, those cities. Project is has been. Why is this so complicated? I could touch on that if there's interest. So, basically, the key point I like to make is starting in the 1970s with the Buckman Well Field and then 2011 when the Buckman Diversion came online, the city's water footprint has expanded out to essentially Colorado. That's where the diversion's at. And the San Juan Chama project now makes up more than half our water supply. Clearly, we see in the news that everywhere in the West, there's a lot of shortage. So I want to address that concern. So, and, Chair, I'm happy to take questions as they come up if I defer to your leadership. Yeah, we will ask at the end. Thank you. Thank you. So, ultimately, we see this slide as well. This is pretty unusual, a hundred-year record, but he's saying this is something we've been wanting to pivot towards with the water conservation. This is a key point here, is this is water production. This is how much water has come into the city for many years, one-time use. What ultimately the pipeline will bring is the ability for reuse. And where I would like conversation, if I were to get in my way, is steered towards this water consumption. Water that's used to effectively extinction, because that really guides many principles in water management in terms of resiliency of our system, and I'll touch on that. But the key point here is basically the city acquired the water system, implemented conservation measures, reduced our demand by 30%, population's grown by 25%. Our demand has remained flat. We want to now continue the downward trend, and we're working with the Conservation Committee to achieve those goals. But a key point, and I use the metaphor "one bite at the apple," the way the city's water system has evolved is that, basically, we use the water once, and with the exception of some non-potable reuse on some of the fields down on the southern end of the city, southwest end, it mostly goes down to Santa Fe. There's a huge benefit there. But the reality is we've created a human, say, man-made, a human construct of an unnatural hydrologic system below the Paseo Real. The point where more water arrives at the wastewater plant and flows naturally into our reservoir as we're importing other sources or what. So just fundamental basics. I'll get to now to the main points. Thank you again for the opportunity to— So the San Juan Chama project, I want to make a mention, is that I'm a vice chair of what's called the San Juan Chama contractors. What has happened in the recent past is all the contractors have gotten together to charter an organization to help better manage and get a unified voice with the state government, federal agencies, and our own internal operations to basically streamline costs on the operation and maintenance of a project that is now nearing six. In fact, we're going to be up there next weekend with a multitude of agencies discussing next steps on some major infrastructure update. And we've been very successful in getting outside funding. So far, we've not seen any dramatic changes in our annual fee for maintenance. So with that said, San Juan Chama project, it's a one-page illustration. It's simply a closed-loop system where water—and I wish my pointer was larger, but I think we all pretty much understand the process where water is diverted. All four, out of the reservoir at Abiquiu, and it's diverted at the Buckman Direct Diversion. And we bring it in. We remove sediment at Booster Station 1. We bring that water, and we lift it up these stations, bring it to the water treatment facility. We're basically treating it to drinking water. It's a huge success. Now we route that water into our distribution systems. Here's a key point. Any of you heard this? I'm almost feeling I'm being overly redundant. But the emphasis being on an annual basis, one-third of our water is used. Soon. Right? It's consumed and lost. But on the flip side, because we have such a successful conservation program, two-thirds of that water makes it back into what I call our sewershed. Sewer system that then brings water back to the Paseo Real or if we so choose. So that is a new paradigm shift for us. Our intention with this project is, and I'll just point it out, is a pipeline and one pump and to route water out, basically, 599, generally speaking, past the Buckman Direct Diversion water treatment facility for it someday. Potentially, there may be an opportunity at Audible. Something that El Paso is pursuing right now. Expensive. It cannot be permitted in New Mexico yet, but this project will give us the opportunity to simply make that happen if it ever becomes. Right now, the economics don't work. This project will anchor the Buck. There'll never be another project set up in Webby's again. But how much water will realize that with that said, it'll be a pipeline bringing water directly below the Buckman Direct Diversion, and we have a permit already in place in the state engineer to bring that water back in exchange. And it's going to retain its San Juan Chama. So, to me, that's the gold standard. With that said, we have a very unique opportunity in the fact that we're still trying to drive down the consumption. Right now, it's about 33% annually to a lower number, which will then create more water supply at the for future use. I've heard the city this. And I apologize if this is too introductory. I, Chair Fidel, my chair was got quite a few questions. I wanted to provide more detail. So with that said, this is just another way of describing the project. I've kind of walked through it, so I feel like this slide probably is redundant, but I guess I want to make a key point is we are working as partners with Santa Fe County. They have the opportunity to be an investor and get the benefit with that cost of 7% of 7% of the water, 7% of the expenditure. And in doing that, that potentially opens some opportunities. And, you know, we haven't had a big, large new supply project. Last two was the Buckman, the BDD, 2011. Prior to that was wells that were installed in 2003 under emergency authorization. That was after the crisis 2002 where there was no water. We had to shut off all the water to the parks, draconian measures that the city implemented. I do like to tell—I just was speaking with Mary Garcia—is this year is worse than 2002, yet we're operating two surface water plants, still reserving our groundwater. Clearly, there's a lot of work to be done, but I feel like it's proof of the hard work and investment that this community has made in the water system. So with that said, San Juan Chama project, Jesse has shown this slide numerous times even at the "What's Up With Water." I'll just briefly touch on it. On this side here, this is what I call the one bite of the apple. And it's like where basically we call for the water. The thickness of this red line constitutes the units. Let's just say 100 units of water hauling to bring to the BDD. What ends up happening is after that water is diverted and used with one pass, it's lost to the system. And the water's, with the project, if we were to construct it, I move over to this side. You see how this line is thinner? That constitutes because on an annual basis, for schematic purposes, 66% of units of water are being returned to this project back to the Rio Grande that we're entitled to then take that. We'll redivert that water. It's essentially, call it indirect potable reed. It's basically you put it in the river, take it right up. So, therefore, we're only calling for 33 units to get to the 100. And so that's why that line is very thin. So hold that up because to get to the punch line of the value of the project, then I just want to talk about the schedule. We put this slide together for a meeting, I think, to the PUC. So you may have seen this before, but let me emphasize the significance.