Waterborne gradient Self-Potential (WaSP) logging in the Rio Grande to map localized and regional surface and groundwater exchanges across the Mesilla Valley

Abstract

The Rio Grande is the primary source of recharge to the Mesilla Basin/Conejos-Médanos aquifer system (“Mesilla Basin aquifer system”) in the Mesilla Valley of New Mexico and Texas. The Mesilla Basin aquifer system is the primary source of water supply to several large cities along the United States–Mexico border. Identifying gaining and losing reaches of the Rio Grande in the Mesilla Valley is therefore critical for managing the quality and quantity of surface and groundwater-resources available to stakeholders in the Mesilla Valley and downstream. A Waterborne gradient Self-Potential (WaSP) logging survey was completed in the Rio Grande across the Mesilla Valley between June 26 and July 2, 2020 to identify reaches where surface-water gains and losses were occurring by interpreting an estimate of the streaming-potential component of the electrostatic field in the river, measured during bank-full flow. The WaSP survey, completed as part of the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program, began at Leasburg Dam State Park, New Mexico near the northern terminus of the Mesilla Valley and ended ~72 kilometers (km) downstream in Canutillo, Texas. Electric potential data indicated a net losing condition for ~32 km between Leasburg Dam and Mesilla Diversion Dam in New Mexico, with one 200-m long reach showing a localized gaining condition. Downstream from Mesilla Diversion Dam, electric-potential data indicated a neutral-to-mild gaining condition for 12-km that transitioned to a mild-to-moderate gaining condition between 12 and ~22 km from the dam before transitioning back to a losing condition along the remaining 18 km of the survey reach. The interpreted gaining and losing reaches are substantiated by potentiometric surface mapping in hydrostratigraphic units of the Mesilla Basin aquifer system between 2010 and 2011 and streamflow gains and losses quantified from annual streamflow gaging at 16 stations along the survey reach between 1988 and 1998 and between 2004 and 2013. The gaining and losing reaches of the Rio Grande in the Mesilla Valley, interpreted from electric potential data, compare notably well with streamflow gains and losses quantified at 16 locations along the 72-km long survey reach.