USGS Water-Year Summary 2023

08329928 RIO GRANDE NEAR ALAMEDA, NM

LOCATION - Lat 35°10'55.2", long 106°39'07" referenced to North American Datum of 1983, Bernalillo County, NM, Hydrologic Unit 13020203, on downstream side of Paseo del Norte bridge in Albuquerque, and at mile 1,532.0.

DRAINAGE AREA - 17,210 mi² of which 2,987 mi² probably is noncontributing. (from the closed basin in San Luis Valley, Colorado)

SURFACE-WATER RECORDS

PERIOD OF RECORD - March 1989 to September 2000, June 2003 to current year.

GAGE - Water-stage recorder with satellite telemetry and crest-stage gage. Datum of gage is 4,990 ft above National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929, from topographic map.

REMARKS - Water years 2014-2019; records fair except for estimated discharges, which are poor. Flow completely regulated since November 1973 by Cochiti Dam (station 08317300), 48 mi upstream. Possible regulation by operation of reservoirs on Rio Chama and by flood- and silt-detention reservoirs on Galisteo Creek and Jemez River (stations 08285000, 08286900, 08317900, 08328500). Diversions upstream from station for irrigation of about 714,000 acres, several hundred of which are downstream from station.

A low-head inflatable dam is located about 3/4 mile upstream from the gage. The purpose of this dam is to create an extraction pool for San Juan diversion water, for the City of Albuquerque. Water is pumped from behind the dam for municipal use, which can result in a rapid decrease in flow at the gage. Additionally, the dam can be operated in a fluctuating mode to maintain levels of the inflow pool, resulting in a rapid change of stage over a one to three hour period. Large quantities of sediment can be stored behind the low-head dam and subsequently mobilized when the dam is deflated, greatly affecting the section geometry and stage-discharge relation.