13-4 GROUNDWATER DATA IN THE PLACITAS AREA, SANDOVAL COUNTY, NEW MEXICO: DECLINING WATER-LEVELS FOR SOME, NOT ALL

Session: Hazards and Resources Mapping in the Southwest US: Applications and Future Opportunities

Presenting Author:

Author:

Abstract:

To manage water resources reliable, plentiful, and timely water data are essential. A review of groundwater data from the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer (NMOSE), indicates that total municipal, shared well and domestic groundwater withdrawals in the Placitas area of New Mexico amounted to between 616 and 1279 acre-feet (ac-ft) in 2020, substantially less than the more than 5248 ac-ft/yr of permitted domestic and municipal diversions on record.  Roughly 75 percent of local residents are served by a mutual domestic water consumers association, which have a combined 464 ac-ft/yr of water-rights.  The remaining population rely on individual or shared domestic wells. Water-rights for irrigation, industrial, commercial, stock, and highway use amount to 3936 ac-ft/yr in the area. Recharge estimates suggest that as much as 3216 ac-ft/yr may be available to the area (e.g. Sanford et al., 2004); however, recharge is unevenly distributed, and hydrogeologic compartmentalization likely locally limits groundwater availability (Johnson et al., 2008).

The impact of groundwater use in the Placitas area is not entirely clear, as water-level records are imperfect and favor certain aquifers and certain time periods.  Earliest U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data is from 1975.  The earliest New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (NMBGMR) data is from 1987.  Significant NMBGMR data gathering occurred between 1997 and 1999 and from 2017 to 2025, whereas significant USGS data gathering occurred from 2005 to 2015 (between 16 and 26 wells).  However, NMOSE well record data for the entire area, reveal a progressive increase in average well depths and depths to water over the past six decades, a record spanning from 1960 to 2023, with 1664 entries.  The NMOSE records show that well depth increased from about 270 feet below ground level (ft bgl) in the 1960s and 1970s to approximately 420 ft bgl in 2023.  Depth to water increased from 169 to 209 ft bgl in the same time period.  The increase in well depth may better reflect a regional water-level decline, which recently approached 2.5 ft/yr. Spatially and temporally variable groundwater conditions in Placitas may exacerbate vulnerability to declining water levels as increasing temperatures put groundwater resources under additional stress in the Albuquerque Basin.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4, 2026

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-14838

© Copyright 2026 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved.