The Development of a Coordinated Database for Water Resources and Flow Model in the Paso del Norte Watershed (Phase III) Part II Availability of Flow and Water Quality Data for the Rio Grande Project Area

This report fulfills the deliverables required by the cooperative agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Texas AgriLife Research (TAES/03-PL-02: Modification No. 3) on behalf of the Paso del Norte Watershed Council. Tasks accomplished in this phase include (a) assess the data availability for expansion of the URGWOM model, identify data gaps, generate data needed from historic data using empirical methods, compile and verify the water quality data for reaches between the Elephant Butte Reservoir, New Mexico and Fort Quitman, Texas; (b) develop the RiverWareTM physical model for the Rio Grande flow for the selected reaches between Elephant Butte Reservoir and El Paso, beginning with a conceptual model for interaction of surface water and groundwater in the Rincon and Mesilla valleys, and within the limits of available data; (c) implement data transfer interface between the coordinated database and hydrologic models.

This Project was conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and New Mexico State University (NMSU) under the direction of Zhuping Sheng of TAMU and J. Phillip King of New Mexico State University. It was developed to enhance the coordinated database, which was originally developed by the Paso del Norte Watershed Council with support of El Paso Water Utilities to fulfill needs for better management of regional water resources and to expand the Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM) to cover the river reaches between Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico, and Fort Quitman, Texas. In Phases I and II of this Project (TAES/03-PL-02), hydrological data needed for flow model development were compiled and data gaps were identified and conceptual model development. The objectives of this phase were to develop a physical model of the Rio Grande flow between Elephant Butte Dam and American Dam by using data collected in the first development phase of the PdNWC/Corps Coordinated Water Resources Database and to enhance the data portal capabilities of the PdNWC Coordinated Database Project.

This report is Part II of a three part completion report that combines data compilation of the Phase I report prepared by Sue Tillery and J. Phillip King and part of the completion report for Phase III prepared by Z. Sheng, J.P. King and B. Creel. It identifies and evaluates the availability of historical flow and water quality data that has been collected at different sites along the Rio Grande between Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico and Fort Quitman, Texas. This includes monitoring sites from associated canals, drains, and dams along the Rio Grande. Flow data for the years from 1908 through 2002 and water quality data for the years 1938 to 2005 collected periodically by different agencies include historic chemical analytical results and real-time monitoring values. This report includes a description of the agencies that collected water quality data, a summary of the sites found along the Rio Grande, and finally a data matrix and parameter summary for each site. Data downloaded were collected from the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), El Paso, Texas; US Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID), El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1, and Parsons Engineering Science, Inc. compiled for the New Mexico-Texas Water Commission by contract through El Paso Water Utilities.