[Project Complete]
AMAFCA and the City of Albuquerque are committed to protecting surface and groundwater quality in our community. Maintenance of the water quality facility will include cleaning out the accumulated vegetation and construction materials debris from the arroyo; and adding a permanent earthen maintenance road generally along the western side of the arroyo. The project also includes improving access to facilitate the removal of trash and debris from stormwater flows.
Stormwater Quality Information: This project includes construction of a stormwater treatment train. What is a treatment train? As the stormwater runoff moves through this arroyo – from Wyoming Blvd. to Spain Road – it will pass through a series of controls, each designed to selectively remove pollutants from the stormwater. Removing pollutants from the stormwater helps protect the water quality of the Rio Grande and the aquifer.
Car 1 in this treatment train (just downstream of Wyoming Blvd.) focuses on removing large gross pollutants and floatable debris – things like shopping carts, cardboard boxes, and larger food and beverage containers. Car 2 will have two additional debris fence structures. These are designed to capture smaller debris (like plastic bags and water bottles) that makes it through the Car 1 debris screens. The second car also focuses on access into the channel; access is essential, so AMAFCA and the City of Albuquerque crews can safely and effectively remove the trapped debris in both Cars 1 and 2. The first two cars of the treatment train have the “harder”, constructed improvements allowing the heavy maintenance to be focused in this area of the channel while keeping the remainder of the channel more naturalistic. Cars 3 and 4 are designed to remove pollutants through vegetation and maximize the amount of runoff that infiltrates into the ground and reaches the aquifer. Additional filtration occurs in Car 5, which also features a low flow notch that slowly releases the water toward the Bear Canyon Arroyo to the south.
Lower Bear Tributary Arroyo Location Map
