Rio San Jose

About the Rio San Jose

• The river's roughly 6,300-square-mile watershed in west-central New Mexico also reaches the Navajo Nation and the communities of Bluewater and San Rafael, though perennial surface water is sparse and most water use in the basin relies on groundwater pumped from sedimentary and basalt aquifers.1
• For the Pueblo of Acoma, the Rio San José stream system has been the primary water source for centuries, though its flows declined over the last 150 years.2

This report follows 56 miles (91 km) of the Rio San Jose, all within the Rio San Jose watershed segment. At the lower end of the report the river drains about 2,675 square miles. Downstream of the mapped reach it flows into the Rio Puerco. Named tributaries joining it here include the Acoma Creek, Arroyo Conchas, Rio Paguate, Arroyo Lucero and Rio Gypsum. Largest urban areas near it: Grants. 4 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 San Jose

   25 cfs last week much above normal.

   Median conductance 1,024 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 170% of normal.

Culture

• Acoma Pueblo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States, has irrigated fields along the Rio San José for at least 1,000 years; the first written record of Pueblo irrigation on the river dates to 1583.2
• Mount Taylor, whose snowmelt feeds the Rio San José's springs, is a cultural property of the Pueblos of Acoma and Laguna and of the Navajo Nation, and Acoma's spiritual traditions and songs remain tied to the river's springs, valleys, mountains and mesas.2
• The present-day Pueblo of Laguna, whose main village was built into a sandstone slope on the west side of the Rio San José, was established after the Pueblo Revolt (1680-1696) by a group of Kawaik people joined by refugees from Cieneguilla, Santo Domingo, Cochiti and Zia.34
• The Spanish-era mission of San José de la Laguna was completed around July 4, 1699; the Pueblo of Laguna's six villages today hold about 500,000 acres of reservation land across Cibola, Valencia, Bernalillo and Sandoval counties.4

Habitat

• The river's hydrology is fed by snowmelt on Mount Taylor and the Zuni and San Mateo mountains, which recharges springs such as Ojo del Gallo and Horace Springs that historically sustained flow across Acoma and Laguna lands, though many upland aquifers no longer discharge appreciable water to the stream system.2
• USGS modeling of the basin found that more than 98% of precipitation is lost to evapotranspiration, with only about 1.2% recharging groundwater and 0.47% becoming direct runoff, underscoring how little water reaches the river as streamflow in this arid basin.1

Reservoirs

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

Water users

• Before U.S. sovereignty in the region, Acoma farmers used walk-in wells to reach alluvial groundwater and directed ephemeral surface flows from the Rio San José to irrigate their fields; a 1918 Bureau of Indian Affairs planting report for Acomita recorded 1,625 acres under cultivation.2
• Legislation introduced in Congress, the Rio San José and Rio Jemez Water Settlements Act, would ratify a water rights settlement for the Pueblos of Acoma and Laguna in the Rio San José Stream System and establish pueblo trust funds, including one for the Acomita Reservoir Works.5
• The Acoma and Laguna Pueblos' water rights in the Rio San José system have been addressed through the basin-wide adjudication State ex rel. State Engineer v. Kerr-McGee, et al., which covers all surface and groundwater users in the stream system.2
• A 1983 USGS study found that groundwater in the Rio San José valley fill near Paguate and Encinal on the Laguna reservation can yield 50 to 450 gallons per minute for public supply, and that winter river flows could be used to recharge groundwater storage in the valley.6

Surface water withdrawn, 2020

In the counties this river crosses (Bernalillo, Cibola, Valencia): 214,792 acre-feet. County totals include other streams.

State Engineer, New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2020.

Public water systems beside the river

Highland Meadows Estates MDWCA, Correo Water Association

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