Historically, the tiny New Mexico town of Willard has needed only a single well to supply water to its small population of 242 people.
But in recent years, the residents have kept close watch on groundwater and noticed an alarming trend – the level in their well keeps going down.
The town is one of several municipalities spread out throughout New Mexico that receive updates on groundwater trends thanks to sensors from Wellntel in partnership with the state’s Aquifer Mapping Program.
“Having that data is allowing them to make better decisions –– but in a larger sense it’s an awakening for them,” said Stacy Timmons, Associate Director of Hydrogeology Programs for the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources.
In a years-long relationship with the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources (where Timmons leads Hydrogeology Programs) Wellntel provides everything that is necessary to collect water information, analyze the information and share conclusions with citizens. Wellntel’s sensor, telemetry, and data-management and analytical tools help Timmon’s team to be laser focused on rapid, simple deployments, the highest data quality and greatest quantity and process efficiency leading to action.
For example, as a result of knowing the facts about water, residents have been able to take ownership for the long-term health of their community, making the collective decision not to sell water to a local farm, which could have devastated their water supply. This was not a decision made lightly in a town where 80% of the population lives below the poverty line.
This area of New Mexico is reliant on the Estancia Basin watershed, and Timmons refers to it as the “canary” basin. If water runs out there, it will signal larger problems for the whole region.
“There will be a whole lot of changes and already there are farms that have gone fallow,” she said. “Those are the stories you don’t even hear about.”
Timmons commends towns like Willard who are opening their eyes to the realities of water conservation. For more areas to do that, there needs to be data and understanding of what’s going on below ground with science and reporting conducted on a scale not possible before.
That’s where Wellntel comes in.
In collaboration with Wellntel CTO and co-founder Nick Hayes, Timmons started working on an statewide Aquifer Mapping Program to illuminate water risk (and opportunity) where it was simply invisible before.
“Wellntel allows us to track groundwater levels all across the state and fill in gaps that exist in the federal monitoring network,” Timmons said. “We saw the robustness of the data with Wellntel.”
