Village gets update on Corrales Siphon, river project

CORRALES — The village is closer to having a more sustainable water system, and the Rio Grande river project is also progressing.

These topics got updates Feb. 24 during a regular village council meeting, when Jason Casuga, director of the Middle Rio Grande Flood Control Authority, gave an update about the ongoing project.

"So, as many folks know, there's not a ton of activity going on at the siphon on the Corrales side. The project is still going forward," he said.

He said there were some issues with the conductor casing, along with an auger that the contractor had in there.

"That caused us to pause and demo work has been going on on the Sandia side, so the project is going forward. Folks should start to see, I think, sometime in March, late March the conductor casein going back in. We expect sometime in April drilling will resume on the west side, heading to the east side," he said.

Casuga added he didn't want to get into too many technical details but said the details are the same in the design.

"The community should start to feel our contractor and a lot more work beginning to take place as we get into March," he said. 

As irrigation season is approaching, Casuga said, MRGCD started operating the irrigation facilities Feb. 26 further south and moving north. "The work that they're doing on March 3 won't affect what we're doing with the pumps because we won't be up here with the pump starters by then. It'll be pretty quick after they finish their work into that second week in March or so, that will be up with the pumps running up here."

There is not enough water in the river for MRGCD to divert in all diversions at one time, according to Casuga. 

"The start of our irrigation season can't break the river, and what I mean by that is it can't separate the river from continuously flowing all the way down to Elephant Butte," he said.

The river mile project, handled by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in New Mexico, won't interfere with MRGCD's work, Casuga said. 

He left the group with an iota of hope that monsoon season will bring more water. He did say he was not worried about the upcoming season because they have measures in place to get residents their water.

As was promised, the river mile project will alternate work near Corrales with the siphon project. 

John Irizarry Nazario, Bureau of Reclamation Albuquerque Area Office acting manager, stated work on the river mile project will begin in March.

Siphon Road will be closed for work on the River Mile 199 project running through April 15.

Nazario said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will begin to reroute the Rio Grande channel as part of the Corrales River Mile 199 maintenance project to protect riverside infrastructure from erosion along the Rio Grande north of Albuquerque and protect the riverside levee system at three points where river meandering is currently threatening the levee. 

The project also aims to rehabilitate the river planform and improve aquatic and riparian habitat. This is the first of three planned river rerouting phases. 

The next rerouting will occur as early as June and the goal is for a final rerouting in early 2027.