Rancho Verde Story: Part 6 – Water
Rancho Verde, located 7,000 feet above sea level in the East Mountains of New Mexico, is essentially “high dessert” with annual rainfall in the order of 9 to 12 inches (much of this is in the form of snow in winter months). Water supply is a critical component in any development in the East Mountains (east of Albuquerque, NM) and is provided from deep underground aquifers located in the valley bottoms. In the early 1990’s, Rancho Verde purchased an annual allowance of 85 acre feet of water (this equals one foot of water covering 85 acres, a total of 27,525,000 gallons or 9,000 gallons per lot per month for each of 255 view lots) through the Entranosa Water and Wastewater Co-Operative (Entranosa), a non-profit, private co-operative owned by the people it serves. Historical average water consumption in Rancho Verde has been 5,600 gallons per month per lot so with the purchase of 9,000 gallons per lot there is ample water capacity.
Rancho Verde has one large capacity water tank of 250,000 US gallons with directly access to a similar sized neighboring tank all of which ensures that both domestic and firefighting supply are constantly maintained. Future phases of Rancho Verde will see the addition of a further tank.
Entranosa owns an extensive water distribution network which includes 285 miles of pipe together with 8 deep wells, pumps, 2.8 million gallons of water storage tanks and purification systems and currently serves in excess of 3,400 homes over 240 square miles including those in Rancho Verde. Entranosa maintains very strict standards in its purification, maintenance, reliability and delivery of water and has an enviable record in this regard. Given that the availability and quality of water is the prime determinant of human health, Rancho Verde residents are fortunate to be well served by Entranosa. www.entranosawater.com