Albuquerque’s South, North, and Middle Valleys’ drainage had been neglected until the year Danny was elected. This had been one of the main reasons AMAFCA was sued in 1998 to create minority majority districts.

The result was Danny’s election and he’s taken that obligation seriously because, as unsexy as it may be, drainage is imperative for quality of life, public safety and economic development. But Valley drainage is expensive because the Rio Grande is above the valley floor. So, when Danny was elected, there were more than $220,000,000 in latent drainage needs in the Middle Rio Grande Valley – that’s not including levees (levees became an issue after Hurricane Katrina).

For this reason, Danny has worked hard to create a cooperative working relationship with New Mexico’s Congressional Delegation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, State Senators and Representatives, Bernalillo County and its Commissioners, the City of Albuquerque and its Mayor and City Council, the NM Department of Transportation and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and and its Board Members.

Since Danny was elected, AMAFCA and Bernalillo County have built a major portion of a trunk system designed to take water from all over the South Valley and up into the Rio Grande, AMAFCA has put money into the drainage systems in the North Valley and has significantly contributed to the City’s efforts to fix the interconnected drainage problems in Barelas and Martineztown.

A side benefit of all the new drainage facilities Bernalillo County, the City of Albuquerque, the Army Corps of Engineers and AMAFCA has built in the South Valley are recreational facilities and farms. There are now soccer fields, parks and a basketball court that hide drainage ponds all over the South Valley. Sanchez Farms, which is behind the Westside Community Center, is an AMAFCA / Bernalillo County drainage facility. AMAFCA also owns land all over the South Valley that are working farms. Nearly all of AMAFCA properties in the South Valley serve as wildlife habitat that will never be developed because we need them to hold water only when it rains.

What’s next?

There are still a lot of facilities to be built to complete the South Valley Flood Control Project. There will be a comprehensive study next year to figure out how to best address the flooding problems in the Middle Valley. In addition, AMAFCA will be working with the MRGCD, Bernalillo County and the Army Corps of Engineers to start working on the Albuquerque levees before FEMA decertifies them like it has the last three miles of the system. That project itself is expected to cost more than $120,000,000 and we will need our new Congressional Delegation to help make it happen. For that reason, Danny and the AMAFCA staff have already begun educating candidates from both parties about drainage issues.

Something the AMAFCA Executive Engineer noticed when planning final pieces of the Amole Dam system, which drains the Southwest Mesa and the west side of the South Valley, is that it would make a fine trail network and linear park system. Danny has been talking with County Commissioner Elect Art de LaCruz about the possibility of formally developing a trail system that would connect the far South Valley all the way to the Petroglyphs National Monument. Art, being a former Bernalillo County Parks and Recreation Director was very receptive.

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