Rio Chama

About the Rio Chama

• Between El Vado and Abiquiu reservoirs, the Rio Chama's 24.6-mile canyon stretch—21.6 miles wild and 3 miles scenic—was designated a Wild and Scenic River in 1988 for its geology, prehistoric sites, recreation, scenery and wildlife.12
• Georgia O'Keeffe first came to Ghost Ranch in 1934 and in 1945 bought a house in the village of Abiquiú, drawn partly by its acequia-watered garden; the area's red and gray hills and the flat-topped Pedernal were among her favorite subjects.34

This report follows 131 miles (211 km) of the Rio Chama, all within the Rio Chama watershed segment. At the lower end of the report the river drains about 3,086 square miles. Downstream of the mapped reach it flows into the Rio Grande. Named tributaries joining it here include the Rio Cebolla, Rio Gallina, Rio Puerco, Rio Brazos and El Rito. Reservoirs on this reach: Heron Reservoir, El Vado Reservoir and Abiquiu Lake. 8 gauges with at least 26 weeks of daily flow cover 1912 to 2026.

From the archive: NHDPlus river network, WBD watersheds, NHD waterbodies, TIGER urban areas and the report's gauges.

From the headwaters down

Each watershed segment in order, with last week's flow rated against the same week in 1991–2020.

1. 1

   Segment 1: Rio Chama

   1,542 cfs last week much above normal.

   22 acequias along this reach, including Abeyta-Trujillo Acequia, Acequia De Chamita, Acequia De Chili Y La Cuchilla, Acequia De Esquibel.

   Water 10.6 °C at Rio Chama Near Chamita, NM. Median conductance 186 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 204% of normal.

Culture

• In 1754 the Spanish colonial government granted 16,000 acres near Abiquiú to genízaros—detribalized Native Americans, many descended from war captives—and Hopi families, founding the settlement of Santo Tomás de Abiquiú; their descendants are today reasserting Genízaro identity through ceremonies, feast days, ranching, farming and acequias.5
• The Piedra Lumbre valley around Abiquiu Reservoir has been inhabited for some 10,000 years, from Paleoindian and Archaic hunter-gatherers through Ancestral Puebloans and later Ute, Navajo and Apache bands, before Spanish settlers arrived in the 1740s.6
• The Rio de Chama Acequia Association represents about 22 acequias along the river, from the Trujillo-Abeyta ditch in the north to the Salazar Ditch; it is an all-volunteer nonprofit whose chair says its member ditches hold some of the oldest priority water rights in the country, dating in some cases to the 1600s.7
• Georgia O'Keeffe's home in the village of Abiquiú, which she occupied from 1949 to 1984 and which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, had a garden watered by a traditional acequia.4

Acequias

• Abeyta-Trujillo Acequia (Abiquiu, Rio Arriba County)8
• Acequia De Chamita
• Acequia De Chili Y La Cuchilla
• Acequia De Esquibel
• Acequia De Hernandez
• Acequia De Jose Ferran
• Acequia De Jose Pablo Gonzales
• Acequia De Karl Bode
• Acequia De La Puente
• Acequia De La Tierra Azul
• Acequia De Los Gonzales
• Acequia De Maestas
• Acequia De Manzanares Montoya
• Acequia de Pueblo Abiquiu (Abiquiu, Rio Arriba County)8
• Acequia De Quintana
• Acequia De Ranchitos
• Acequia De Salazar
• Acequia Del Borranco
• Acequia Del Rio De Chama
• Acequia Mariano
• Acequia Valentine Martinez
• Acequla Del Borranco

From the State Engineer's acequia map, which covers mainly northern New Mexico, and cited records of acequia governance. Within 1.5 km of the river.

Habitat

• Congress designated 24.6 miles of the Rio Chama as Wild and Scenic in 1988—21.6 miles wild and 3 miles scenic—for its outstanding geology, prehistoric sites, recreation, scenery and wildlife; the canyon's sandstone walls rise as much as 1,500 feet above the river.111
• The Rio Chama Flow Project, begun in 2011, releases experimental floodplain- and sediment-moving flows below El Vado Dam to help restore the natural flow patterns that native fish—longnose dace, Rio Grande chub, flathead chub and white suckers—and riverside cottonwoods depend on.2
• The Rio Chama Wilderness Study Area, adjoining the Chama River Canyon Wilderness, protects a 900-foot-deep canyon of siltstone and sandstone along with piñon woodlands and ponderosa pine-Douglas fir forest that support a variety of wildlife.12

Reservoirs

From the archive: National Inventory of Dams (USACE) and the reservoir registry.

Water users

• Authorized by Congress in 1962, the Bureau of Reclamation's San Juan-Chama Project diverts water from three headwater streams of the San Juan River in southern Colorado through a tunnel beneath the Continental Divide into Heron Reservoir, supplying agricultural, municipal, domestic and industrial water to the middle Rio Grande valley.13
• Albuquerque holds the largest San Juan-Chama Project contract at 48,200 acre-feet a year, followed by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District at 20,900 acre-feet and the Jicarilla Apache Nation at 6,500 acre-feet; Santa Fe has contracted for 5,605 acre-feet a year since a 1976 agreement that was restructured into two permanent contracts in 2006.13
• Because of ongoing safety work at El Vado Dam, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District have agreed to allow water to be stored in Abiquiu Reservoir for up to ten years so the Middle Rio Grande Project can keep operating.10

Surface water withdrawn, 2020

In the counties this river crosses (Rio Arriba): 144,257 acre-feet. County totals include other streams.

State Engineer, New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2020.

Irrigation districts and acequias

• 22 acequias, community-run irrigation ditches (listed under Culture)

State Engineer's irrigation districts and acequia layers.

Public water systems beside the river

Espanola Water System, Agua Sana Water Users Association, Chama Water System, Tierra Amarilla MDWCA, Rutherton Mutual Water Association, Ensenada MDWCA

State Engineer's public water systems layer (service areas within 2 km).