Abstract
Many water systems in New Mexico have been severely impacted by the 10-year drought currently occurring in the arid southwest. One of those, Cloudcroft NM, experiences large demand increases on the weekends. Because available water in their fracture formation aquifer has steadily declined, it is often difficult to fill available storage above the 25% level. In addition many of the homes surrounding Cloudcroft now have dry private wells because of the dropping water table. This has forced some citizens on private supplies to rely on the public water system to provide for their needs. In response to the severe drought, the community has instituted severe water rationing, conservation measures, and installed a small surface water treatment plant to treat water that collects in a 1 million gallon firefighting pond.
Comments
Abstracts of presentations given on Tuesday, 18 July 2006, in session 7 of the UCOWR Conference.