Las Golondrinas Water Master Plan & Wastewater Engineering

A water master plan reduces water demands and upgrades outdated wastewater infrastructure to protect the historic site and cienega springs and marshes as well as provide recycled water for site landscaping.

El Rancho de Las Golondrinas is a 200-acre living history museum celebrating the heritage and culture of Spanish Colonial New Mexico. In addition to its historic structures and operational facilities, the property includes a feature unique to the arid, high desert landscape: a spring and wetland system known as a cienega.

As water experts on a master planning team led by Surroundings Studio and AOS Architects, Biohabitats helped the museum plan to expand its offerings, infrastructure, and guest experiences while also ensuring the protection of the cienega and local groundwater.

The original wastewater treatment system at Las Golondrinas lacked the capacity to treat wastewater generated during the museum’s large events, which had become increasingly popular. After evaluating appropriate options for onsite wastewater collection, treatment, reuse, and disposal Biohabitats developed a strategy to treat and reuse up to 5,000 gpd of wastewater effluent onsite for irrigating the parking lot landscaping. Reducing overall water consumption, this approach also delivers a higher-quality effluent than a conventional septic system, thus better protecting water quality. The strategy was included in the Las Golondrinas Facilities Master Plan, which won a 2021 New Mexico American Society of Landscape Architects award.

Biohabitats then helped the museum implement the strategy by designing, permitting, and supervising construction of the new wastewater treatment system. The system consists of several septic tanks, from which wastewater is pumped into a 6,000-gallon equalization tank. The water is then pumped through an AdvanTex ® textile filter for secondary treatment before it is dosed out to a dispersal field. The 5,000 gpd system enables Las Golondrinas to safely treat its wastewater, including during large events, while also protecting its unique cienega and wetland ecosystem, and stewarding water below and beyond the 3.4-acre site.

TAGS

• Analysis+Planning
• Assessment+Monitoring