Mapping the Domestic Water System and
Surface Waters in Sile, New Mexico
Belle Rehder
CE547 – GIS in Water Resources Final project
Background
Sile, a small, rural community in
northern New Mexico, lies along the west side
of the Rio Grande, below Cochiti
Lake, between Albuquerque
and Santa Fe. In this community most of the homes,
approximately 35 households, are hooked up to a community domestic well system,
known as the Sile Mutual Domestic Water Association (SMDWA). The remaining
residences have private wells. A few houses have both options. In the last
decade, the aging water system of SMDWA has seen the replacement of the water
tank, yet the frail pipe and meter system needs attention. To better serve and repair the community
system, the community water board has the need to identify meter locations, as
well as the water hydrants that serve to protect the community from fire and
other disasters. Some meters are not functioning
and the pipe infrastructure corrupted at various points. A recent visit by the
New Mexico Office of the State Engineer (NMOSE) state water authority in late 2008
found multiple infractions and advised the community to organize and attain a
better management system with attention to repair.
Objective
Geographic information system (GIS) mapping technology will
be used to map and look at the current state of ground and surface waters of Sile, New Mexico.
The existence and locations of community domestic water infrastructure (meters,
storage tank, pump house, fire hydrants) and surface waters (river and main
canal) will be marked and recorded by a hand held GPS (global positioning
system) unit. From this data, marked
locations of established domestic groundwater infrastructure and important
surface water GPS locations will be transferred to a computer and a map will be
produced using ArcMap, a GIS
application for making maps and analyzing data.
Purpose:
To establish existence and locations of community domestic
water infrastructure (meters, storage tank, pump house, fire hydrants) for the
development of a 5 year community water plan.
|
Site Number
|
Site Name
|
Latitude
|
Longitude
|
Coor accr.
|
lat/long datum
|
District
|
HUC
|
|
8314000
|
SILI MAIN
CANAL (AT HEAD) AT COCHITI, NM
|
35°37'10.2"
|
106°19'28.9"
|
S
|
NAD83
|
35
|
13020201
|
Conclusions and Future Work
The created GIS map, using ArcMap, of the rural community of Sile, New Mexico
groundwater domestic well pumping system will offer the Sile Mutual Domestic
Water Association a means for spatially documenting the health of the system
and recording sites of infraction. The data collected and presented could
possibly offer the community of Sile a means to apply for monies to improve and
safeguard the infrastructure of the Sile Mutual Domestic Water Association
delivery system. From this data collected, the SMDWA will create a 5 year plan
that can be submitted to the NMOSE, referencing needed improvement in community
infrastructure, such as working/nonworking meters and specifically, location of
those meters. Organization and a better management system, with attention to
repair, will direct the creation of a 25 year groundwater supply and use
community plan (required by NMOSE).
