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
Abstract
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 RiverWare 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 was
developed. 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.
Collections
Citation
Tillery, Sue; Sheng, Zhuping; King, J. Phillip; Creel, Bobby; Brown, Christopher; Michelsen, Ari; Srinivasan, Raghavan; Granados, Alfredo (2009). 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. Texas Water Resources Institute. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /93183.