Rio Rancho Hydrogeology

Background

Water for the city of Rio Rancho comes solely from groundwater held in the Santa Fe Group aquifer, which extends several thousands of feet below the surface. This aquifer is composed primarily of sand that was deposited over several million years as the Albuquerque basin dropped down along several major fault zones. What parts of this critical aquifer are most optimal for storing and transmitting this precious resource, and where are they located in the subsurface?

To answer these questions, the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources studied permeability-related properties of Rio Rancho’s aquifer using both outcrops and well data. Within this aquifer, we mapped the depths and extents of hydrostratigraphic units and evaluated lateral changes in permeability within a given unit.

Mapping out the aquifer beneath Rio Rancho into hydrostratigraphic units

A hydrostratigraphic unit (HSU) is a three-dimensional zone of an aquifer, approximating stacked layers in the Rio Rancho area, which exhibit distinctive water-related properties such as permeability or porosity. These differences in hydraulic properties are due to changes in the nature of the sediment in the aquifer. For example, a gravelly-sandy HSU would very likely have higher permeability than a clayey HSU.

Within the Santa Fe Group aquifer, the Upper, Middle, and Lower Rio Rancho HSUs and the Zia HSU were mapped and listed from shallowest to deepest. These HSUs can be recognized in various datasets using the proportion of sand versus clay sediment, the thickness of sand bodies, and the connectedness of sand bodies.

Permeability differences between HSUs

The permeability of an aquifer or HSU describes how easily water moves through the rock material. One way to assess permeability uses hydraulic conductivity values, which are estimated with pumping tests of wells. The Upper Rio Rancho HSU has a notably higher range of hydraulic conductivity values (mostly 6–18 ft/day) than the Middle Rio Rancho HSU (mostly 2–5 ft/day). Only one data point is available for the Lower Rio Rancho aquifer, but it had a value of 21 ft/day. Thus, the Upper and possibly the Lower Rio Rancho HSUs appear to have higher permeabilities. This is consistent with other permeability proxies we analyzed, such as sand body thickness and proportion of sand, clayey sand, and clay for each HSU.

Lateral differences in permeability

By plotting the values of permeability proxies on a map, one can evaluate whether there are lateral changes within an aquifer. The Upper Rio Rancho HSU generally exhibits higher hydraulic conductivity values than the Middle Rio Rancho HSU. However, there are also lateral changes in the Middle Rio Rancho HSU, being highest to the southwest, lowest in the northwest, and with medium values in the east. Lateral trends are not apparent in the Upper Rio Rancho HSU, but consistent, relatively larger circles in the Upper Rio Rancho HSU strongly suggests it has higher permeabilities than the Middle Rio Rancho HSU.

Key takeaways

• Based on our assignment of compiled hydraulic conductivity values to individual HSUs, the Upper and Lower Rio Rancho HSUs can be expected to have higher permeabilities (by a factor of 2 to 3) compared to the Middle Rio Rancho HSU. But the Middle HSU’s extent and greater saturated thickness means it is still important.

• Aquifer thicknesses are greatest in the southeast and slightly thicker northward between the Zia and Coronado fault zones. Most aquifers shallow over a north-trending geologic structure called the Ziana horst.

• There is increased likelihood of poor-quality groundwater in wells on or near the Ziana horst.

• Available pumping-test data suggest the Middle HSU may be slightly more permeable in the extreme southwest of the study area, but more data points are needed to confirm this apparent lateral trend.

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