Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Rosemarie Chora

Document Type

Technical Report

Publication Date

4-5-2010

Abstract

For the people living in the Rio Grande Valley, the importance of water, both quantity and quality, is an ongoing issue. Water resources issues of a local or regional nature are in the news almost every day. As competition for limited water resources intensifies, major economic decisions, both locally and regionally, will be controlled by the availability of usable quantities of ground and surface water. The urbanization of the Albuquerque area has changed the natural workings of its surrounding watersheds. Water quality, vegetation and erosion patterns have been altered by the vast amount of impervious surfaces present within the city. With this altered state of the physical surface, there are also changes in the runoff characteristics within Albuquerque watersheds. The 1995 report by Kyle Harwood titled "The Urban Stormwater Contribution of Dissolved Trace Metals from the North Diversion Floodway Channel, Albuquerque, NM to the Rio Grande", examines the metal contribution of the North Diversion Channel into the Rio Grande. The metals that Harwood examined are dissolved copper, dissolved aluminum and dissolved zinc. This project will analyze contaminant loading to the Rio Grande from the North Diversion Channel watershed and focus on the Embudo sub watershed, as it relates to this loading. Embudo was selected because it originates in the relatively undeveloped Cibola National Forest and is prone to flooding and erosion.

Language (ISO)

English

Keywords

Embudo Canyon watershed, urban stormwater runoff, nonpoint source pollution, Cibola National Forest Terrestrial Ecosystem Survey (TES), USDA Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE), National Storm Water Program, contaminant loading, Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority (AMAFCA), heavy metals, dissolved solids, suspended solids, impervious surfaces

Comments

A Professional Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Water Resources Hydroscience Concentration, Water Resources Program, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 2005

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