In 2012, an Upper Pecos Watershed Based Restoration and Improvement plan was developed and submitted to the New Mexico Environment Department. The Restoration section of our website shows what the Association’s plan is, and the progress that we’ve made in the execution of the plan.
Restoration Goals
The primary goal of the work proposed in the Watershed-Based Plan is to restore the Pecos River and its tributaries to an unimpaired condition so that they achieve all their designated uses. In most cases this involves reducing the maximum water temperatures experienced during mid-summer conditions of low flows and maximum solar heat gain. The criteria to be used to determine success in this goal, and milestones towards its achievement, are described below.
The immediate goal of activities in the Plan for Willow, Macho, Dalton Canyon, and Glorieta Creeks is to determine the sources and composition of contamination well enough to formulate restoration strategies. The ultimate goal for these streams also is to remove the source(s) of pollution causing impairment, but neither the cause(s) of elevated conductance or nutrient levels, nor their sources, are well enough understood at present to allow a remedial strategy to be developed. Accordingly, the first goal of Plan activities is to gather additional information about pollution causes and sources, and the second goal is to design and implement activities to remove these sources and restore water quality.
An additional important goal is to keep sediment from runoff or eroding stream banks from becoming a source of impairment (as it has been in the past), even though only one stream (Willow Creek) is now impaired in part because of excessive sediment levels. This goal will be an important aspect of complying with New Mexico’s anti-degradation water quality standard, which states that: “Existing instream water uses and the level of water quality necessary to protect the existing uses shall be maintained and protected in all surface waters of the state. “ Some restoration projects on streams in addition to Willow Creek are focused on reducing sediment levels or preventing predictable sediment loading from becoming a problem in these streams.