Components

The Water System at Yellow Hills Ranch will include three elements. They are:

  1. SEVERAL WELLS: There are presently three wells located on the property that were studied in a Hydrology Report. The Report concludes those three wells are sufficient to supply all of the water required for the proposed Master Plan. The State of New Mexico requires that a subdivider prove that sufficient water, by the State Engineers standard, is available. The Hydrology Report concludes this supply is available to support this Master Plan.
  2. WATER CATCHMENT: Each improved area, whether a house, a barn or common area improvement, will catch and store water at its location where practical. The goal is to build sufficient catchments to provide for a portion of the water required at the point of use from a renewable source. It is estimated catchments can provide approximately 1/3 of household use (assuming efficient use estimates, not the State standard). The specific details are available from the Ranch on request.
  3. AQUIFER RECHARGE: “Aquifer Recharge” means finding ways to add water to the underground aquifer by employing methods and practices that build underground water reserves. Wherever there is a road, a pad for a house, a barnyard, or other improvement, there is also an opportunity. Two references for this work were submitted with this Master Plan: "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands" by Brad Lancaster (Volumes One and Two) and "Water For Every Farm" by P.A. Yeomans. There is more information about these techniques discussed here.
  4. PROCESSED WASTE WATER: Waste water from septic systems can be used for irrigation in conformity with NM State Statutes, primarily for subsurface irrigation after being treated. Gray water is regulated by NM State Statute. Both are dealt with on the liquid waste page.

The Water System

The water purification and distribution system will be a combination of elements. In dense areas like the workforce housing area, a community water system regulated by the New Mexico Department of the Environment will be required to serve the improvements.

In other areas that are more spread out, storage and purification will be at the point of use.  A local well may serve a cluster of homes. The exact design will be finalized when the overall density is approved. The system, purification, storage and distribution, will be built in phases to accompany the residential development.

Estimating Household Use

Here are the standards we are using to plan total household water use.

Hydrology

At the request of the County a complete Hydrology Report was undertaken. A copy of that report was submitted with this Master Plan application.

The first report was a preliminary reconnaissance-level report on the Ranch's water resources in February of 2009. It provided recommendations for well drilling and methods for constructing the wells to optimize efficient use of the aquifer to manage the effect of a Mancos Shale layer on the water supply.

The second report follows up on the original recommendations and it incorporates data from two additional wells that were drilled in September of 2009. This second report makes final recommendations and conclusions.

Workforce Community Parcel
Well #3 near the workforce housing parcel of land. (See development area)
frontage-roadWell Four in the NW area along State Road 112 (see development area)