Open-file Report - 561
Regional water table map of the northeastern Tularosa Basin region, Otero and Lincoln counties, New Mexico

A regional map of the water table in the northeastern Tularosa Basin region has been prepared based on elevations of springs and well water levels. Water levels were measured by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources from 2009-2011. This map extends up to the western escarpment of the Sacramento Mountains, and is an extension of the water table map of the southern Sacramentos prepared by Land et a l. (2012).

In general, within the area indicated on the map, most ground water flows from east to west following topography. Near the crests of the highest mountains in the region, from the Sierra Blanca mountains to the southern Sacramentos, a ground water divide exists wherein some ground water flows west into the Tularosa Basin region, while the rest flows eastward toward the Pecos Slope. Water flowing west into the Tularosa Basin eventually flows southward.

The aquifer system in the southern Sacramento Mountains is developed primarily within the Yeso Formmation, and the vast majority of water supply wells produce from fractured carbonates, siltstones and mud stones within that rock unit (Land et al., 2012). By contrast, aquifers in the northeastern Tularosa Basin region occur within several different geologic formations with highly variable hydrologic properties. The heterogeneous aquifer system in this area results in part from the fact that the mapped area covers several distinctly different physiographic provinces with differing underlying lithologies. The primary physiographic provinces, which were identified by Mamer et a l. (2014), include the Tularosa Basin, the Carrizozo hilly plain, the northern high mountains (i.e. Sierra Blanca and Nogal Peaks), and the southern high mountains (southern Sacramento Mountains). A significant number of wells are screened in two or more aquifers. The water table represented on this map thus reflects water levels in multiple water-bearing zones, and is intended to show regional ground water patterns and flow paths. Local conditions may deviate from the larger scale, general trends shown on this regional map.

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