Amargosa River Basin: Supporting Long-term Restoration
On behalf of multiple clients, Roux is gathering water quality and flow data to support long-term habitat management and restoration for the Amargosa River watershed in California’s Inyo and San Bernardino counties. Chemical and isotope analyses will help clarify water sources, quality, and ecological interactions.
While Roux’s staff has a long history of site involvement—Andy Zdon has been working in the basin for fifteen years—the project has garnered recent momentum through the California Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) awarding two grants to support the desert ecosystem’s resilience and biodiversity. In November, a near $3 million grant was awarded by the WCB to support long-term restoration planning in the Amargosa Basin. Roux is one of several partners tackling the basin’s most pressing challenges through this initiative, including the American Bird Conservancy, River Partners, and UC Davis.
As part of “Action 1” to sustain an ongoing groundwater monitoring program for 24 springs and nine wells in the Southern Amargosa Basin over three years, Roux and the Amargosa Conservancy will gather water quality and flow data to support long-term habitat management and restoration. Additional grant scope includes updating all instrumentation on our existing monitoring well network, as well as recalibrating the portion of the Death Valley Regional Flow System numerical model that covers the groundwater-dependent Amargosa Wild & Scenic River and the surrounding communities of Pahrump, Shoshone, and Tecopa. This model covers the federally-designated Amargosa Wild & Scenic River developed by the US Geological Survey.
This data will be incorporated into two revised State of the Basin Reports (one in 2025, the other in late 2027), which will be shared with agencies and partners to guide restoration efforts.
