Technical Report
2019 RiverEyes Monitoring Report
URL: https://webapps.usgs.gov/mrgescp/documents/McKenna_2019_RiverEyesMonitoringReport.pdf
Date: 2019/12/12
Author(s): McKenna C.
Publication: Prepared for Bureau of Reclamation by GeoSystems Analysis, Inc., 12 p.
Abstract:
AJAC Enterprises (AJAC) was contracted by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to conduct daily river monitoring and reporting during 2019 as part of a cooperative interagency effort to document channel drying in the Middle Rio Grande (MRG). The monitoring effort verifies important compliance elements within the 2016 Biological Opinion, as it relates to Reclamation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Non-Federal Water Management and Maintenance Activities on the Middle Rio Grande, specifically Reasonable and Prudent Measure 4, and Terms and Conditions 3.2, 9.1 and 9.2. When river discharges reached key thresholds that can trigger flow intermittency, field reconnaissance observations were relayed to an interagency water management team and, particularly when flow intermittency was detected; reported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to support endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (Hybognathus amarus) rescue and relocation activities. GeoSystems Analysis, Inc. (GSA) was subcontracted by AJAC to assist with project reporting and provide training and technical support on the project.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains a network of streamflow monitoring stations throughout the MRG that publish real-time, provisional streamflow volumes to the internet (e.g. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nm/nwis/current/?type=flow). Per the contractual agreement with Reclamation, field reconnaissance within specific high risk segments of the MRG is required when streamflow discharge is below 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) at USGS 08354900 Rio Grande Floodway at San Acacia, New Mexico (NM), or below 80 cfs at USGS 08331160 Rio Grande Near Bosque Farms, NM. During 2019, stream flows fell below this threshold in the San Acacia Reach beginning on August 24 and the monitoring team conducted regular field reconnaissance from August 26 through October 11. Flows never fell below the 80 cfs threshold at Bosque Farms, thus monitoring was never required or implemented in the Isleta Reach during 2019. Also under contract with Reclamation, AJAC pumped supplemental water into the Rio Grande mainstem near the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge (BDA) south boundary from August 25, 2019 through October 5, 2019, except for a period between September 17, 2019 to September 23, 2019.