The Rio Puerco: Erosion and sediment transport to the Rio Grande

Geology Landscapes of Valencia County

The ephemeral Rio Puerco flows parts of the year through the eastern part of the county, cutting southeast through the llano de Albuquerque before reaching the Rio Grande near La Joya.

Although the name would mean river of pigs, it is better translated as muddy river.

As viewed on Google Earth, the Rio Puerco meanders continuously, creating curved river beds and frequent oxbows (remnant curved sections of the river). The river also carries exceptionally high sediment loads.

On average, the Rio Puerco delivers 78 percent of the total suspended sediment load of the Rio Grande, although it drains only 26 percent of the Rio Grande Basin and provides only 4 percent of the runoff water flow. This Rio Puerco load of sediments may impact the downward flow of the Rio Grande and threatens the Elephant Butte storage capacity.

Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, the Rio Puerco area was home to significant pueblos built starting in the 1300s and very active until the mid-1400s. In the early 1800s, the stream was known to have abundant cottonwood trees that are now totally absent, but the area remained largely undeveloped due to insecurity threats from Navajo and Apache raids.

In the late 1800s, the area was deemed safer, and rangers moved in, causing intense grazing throughout the Rio Puerco watershed. This drastically modified the area, stripping the vegetation and increasing erosion.

A historically very significant Pueblo settlement was located along the Rio Puerco. It was brutally investigated by academic archaeologists, who destroyed many unique architectural and artistic features during their investigations.

The former settlement is now under care of the Pueblo of Isleta, who recently obtained a grant to establish nature-based watershed restoration techniques on a 30,000-acre parcel of the Comanche Ranch and neighboring lands to preserve the site of the ancient pueblo from erosion and to mitigate the significant erosion caused by summer monsoons.

(Paul Parmentier, a certified professional geologist retired from California and living in Los Lunas, shares the rich geologic features in Valencia County. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from Belgium and a master’s degree in geochemistry from Japan. The Geology Landscapes of Valencia County are featured monthly.)