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| Photo ©2003, Jane Bernard |
The Galisteo Basin Preserve is located within the Galisteo Watershed. (A "watershed" is a geographic area defined by the flow or movement of surface water in the form of rain or snow.)
The drainage of the Galisteo Watershed covers roughly 730 square miles. In the north, the Galisteo Watershed originates from Thompson Peak (located in the Santa Fe National Forest) and runs south and west until it joins the Rio Grande at Santo Domingo Pueblo.
In recent years, the southwestern United States has endured a moderate to severe drought. Climatologists predict that the region could be entering a long-term cycle of warmer and dryer weather. Although the winter and spring of 2004 witnessed snowfall and rainfall at nearly 80 percent of the region's 30-year average, climate change regionally and globally is a force that cannot be under-estimated.*
Drinking water for most New Mexico commercial and residential land uses is derived from large underground aquifers associated with thick deposits of sand gravel under the Rio Grande Valley, the Pecos River Valley and other large river basins, like the Galisteo River.
Geohydrological reports completed in 1996 and 2003 indicate that the Ancha Formation (a higher and geologically younger deposit) and the Galisteo Formation (a lower and older deposit) offer the best source of water for residents of the West Basin Preserve.
The Galisteo Basin Preserve's resource-efficient construction standards and land restoration practices are designed to limit household consumption to 0.156-acre feet, while concurrently improving the water storage capability of alluvial soils. By this approach, the water resources of the Galisteo Basin could be measurably enhanced—rather than consumed or degraded—by the project's restoration activities.
* Extended periods of drought result in lower replenishment rates or "recharge" to aquifers. This said, except for areas located along the uplift and fracture lines of mountains, rivers, streams, and arroyos, ground water recharge is considered a negligible factor in sustaining underground water supplies for development.
Sources
The Galisteo Watershed: A Vision for the Future, Galisteo Watershed Collaborative Planning, March 2004.
New Mexico Earth Matters, NM Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, January 2001.
Geohydrology of the Thornton West Basin Preserve, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, Geohydrology Associates, Albuquerque, NM, December 1996. | 
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