U.S. Water News Online
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. -- The Elephant Butte Irrigation District believes it can save water by laying 16 miles of underground pipeline in 21 sites to replace open ditches.
The district has applied to the Border Environment Cooperation Commission for a $10 million cost-sharing grant to develop its new water conservation project that would lay pipeline over five years. The commission is an agency of the North American Development Bank.
The irrigation district board is negotiating with the commission to pay its share with in-kind service, labor and equipment, said district manager Gary Esslinger.
The project would save 10,700 acre-feet, or 3.5 billion gallons of water, through faster delivery and reduced seepage, the district estimated. That would equal the irrigation for 2,500 acres of pecans or 4,000 acres of cotton.
The 16 miles represents less than 5 percent of the irrigation district's total system, said district engineer Henry Magallanez said.
Esslinger said the pipeline project will eliminate mowing and herbicide spraying for weed control and reduce bank maintenance for the sections that would have pipeline instead of open ditches.
The 21 sites were chosen because they are in areas that have only intermittent water delivery, which can lead to problems such as excessive weed growth, said Valerie Beversdorf, resource engineering specialist.
The pipelines will not affect the aquifer, which farmers use for their wells.
``The aquifers still will be recharged by water that is turned into the fields,'' Beversdorf said. ``This way we'll be able to direct water where it'll do the most good, in the farmers' crop fields.''
Esslinger has been working with Craig Runyan of New Mexico State University's Extension Service Plant Sciences. Runyan said the pipeline project fits with the university's irrigation efficiency efforts.
``When you combine the efforts of individual water users to conserve with a project like this for systemwide savings, the net results can be substantial,'' he said. ``We've thrown in our support for the work EBID is doing with this and all its conservation practices.''
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