Recycling a most Important Resource

Water is the life blood of the desert and a precious resource.  Making wise use of the rains and pumped ground water only makes sense.  While the estate does irrigate, the Painted Pony Resort also makes use of waste water. 

The Painted Pony Resort is rural and relies on septic tanks for waste.  Waste is fed into septic tanks associated with each building with drainage fields for each.  The location of the drainage field for the main house runs the length of the front garden. Although the drainage field is deep it does provide a layer of moisture under the garden making better use of irrigation water.

In addition to septic drain fields the estate also makes use of gray water.  The guest laundry room in the guest house has a separate drain, not connected to the septic system, and instead drains out 175' north of the laundry room.  Originally planted with some small trees which quickly died, I decided to resurrect the area with more appropriate desert plants to take advantage of this periodic water source.  I initially settled on Agave, primarily because I had grown several specimens which were ready for transplanting and Agave can tolerate irregular watering, grow large, and would provide another species of plant on the estate.  Once the Agave starts growing additional plants can be added to the area to create more color.

Agave planted downhill from laundry room gray water drain

Water Management

Living in the high desert of New Mexico one would suppose that water management would not be high on the list of priorities but in reality water management issues are always a concern.  With only 2 periods of rain every year, the winter rains and summer monsoons, the area can receive a significant amount of rainfall in a short period of time.  On rangeland with sufficient grasses the water is slowed and while the occasional flash flood may occur it is heavily utilized rangeland where most problems develop.  On the main estate at the Painted Pony Resort water management has always been a priority and as a result the 4+ inches of rain received this fall from the remnants of hurricane Odile did little damage.  With this years expansion of the estate further east some of the new water problems are being addressed.  About 2 years ago the road across the riverbed at the north end of the estate, which drains the Peloncillo mountains, began to receive runoff and the road quickly deteriorated with a 3-4' gully forming down the middle. This was the result of a major arroyo changing course after filling in its' old route.  With the movement to the south the ranch road was the  easiest route for the water resulting in the rapid down cutting of the ranch road.  If the arroyo could be persuaded to instead move north all the road problems would be solved.  Fortunately, the owner is currently in residence and enjoys running the tractor and road grader.  So he created several diversions in the arroyo, kicking the flow back north expanding and enlarging my earlier efforts.  The results are that the water flow will move back north and hopefully refill an existing cattle tank on the neighbors property (which was fed by this arroyo) and the old channel will provide a source of sand and gravel for the roads around the estate.

Looking east up the heavily eroded ranch road.

Looking west at the first diversion above the eroded area shown in the first photograph.

Looking northwest at the main diversion channel in the old arroyo.

Looking east up the arroyo.