Rio Puerco

About the Rio Puerco

• The Rio Puerco rises along the eastern edge of the Continental Divide near the town of Cuba in west-central New Mexico and flows south through a watershed of roughly 7,350 square miles — the largest tributary basin of the Middle Rio Grande — before joining the Rio Grande at Bernardo.12
• In the lower Rio Puerco, arroyo incision had stopped by about 1936: USGS researchers found that in the narrow, already-incised channel, floods eroded the banks more than the streambed, widening the channel rather than deepening it further, while a later decline in flood peak size, frequency and duration after 1941 further limited additional incision.3
• The Rio Puerco is best known today for its heavy sediment load: it is the largest suspended-sediment source entering the Rio Grande, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified its erosion rates as the highest in the country.4

This report follows 217 miles (349 km) of the Rio Puerco across 2 watershed segments, from Rio Puerco downstream to Rio Grande-Albuquerque. At the lower end of the report the river drains about 6,156 square miles. Downstream of the mapped reach it flows into the Rio Grande. Named tributaries joining it here include the Arroyo Comanche, Arroyo Alamito, Arroyo San Jose and Arroyo Garcia. Largest urban areas near it: Albuquerque and Los Lunas. 4 gauges with at least 26 weeks of daily flow cover 1934 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 Puerco

   No data last week.

   Median conductance 644 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 184% of normal.

2. 2

   Segment 2: Rio Grande-Albuquerque

   3,525 cfs last week much above normal, 221 dry days this year.

   Median conductance 693 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 172% of normal.

Culture

• Hispanic settlement of the upper valley began in 1736, when Pedro Barela, Jacinto Barela, Jose Sanchez and Juan Garcia founded Nacimiento — later renamed Cuba — on the banks of the Rio Puerco; a larger group of 36 settlers received the San Joaquin del Nacimiento land grant there in 1769.5
• Centuries before Spanish settlement, the valley sheltered Ancestral Puebloan, Mesa Verde-refugee and Gallina communities; Hispanic villages later grew up along the river, including San Luis, Guadalupe, Cabezón and Casa Salazar.6
• The village of Guadalupe was eventually abandoned as its water source failed, after 'the once verdant Río Puerco had withered into a deep arroyo.'6

Habitat

• The Rio Puerco corridor holds BLM-verified habitat for two federally listed birds, the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher and the threatened western yellow-billed cuckoo, both with designated critical habitat there.7
• The nonprofit Rio Grande Return is restoring roughly 2.4 miles of degraded stream in the watershed with low-tech, process-based structures meant to slow flows, trap sediment, raise water tables and restore about 90 acres of riparian wetland, with the eventual goal of drawing beavers back to help maintain the habitat.4

Reservoirs

No reservoir with 500 acre-feet or more of storage on this river in the National Inventory of Dams.

Water users

• BLM's Rio Puerco Field Office, based near Albuquerque, manages nearly 1 million acres of public land and administers 3.6 million acres of federal mineral estate across the watershed's wilderness areas, national conservation lands and archaeological sites.8
• In December 2024, BLM announced an updated resource management plan for the field office covering livestock grazing, recreation, renewable energy, transportation access and mineral development, along with continued cultural consultation with the region's Tribal Nations.9
• The Rio Puerco Management Committee, a collaborative of state, federal, tribal and county agencies formed in 1997 under the Rio Puerco Watershed Act, grew out of a stakeholders group based in Cuba and works to reduce erosion and improve grazing-land condition; project cooperators have included the Navajo Nation and the Pueblo of Jemez.12
• Rio Grande Return manages a Rio Puerco restoration site under a Conservation Stewardship Lease with the New Mexico State Land Office, as part of a long-term plan to monitor water quality, groundwater and wildlife habitat there.4

Surface water withdrawn, 2020

In the counties this river crosses (Bernalillo, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, Socorro, Valencia): 503,470 acre-feet. County totals include other streams.

State Engineer, New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2020.

Irrigation districts and acequias

• Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (165,472 acres mapped)

State Engineer's irrigation districts and acequia layers.

Public water systems beside the river

San Luis Cabezon MDWCA, Cuba Water System, La Joya MDWCA

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