U.S. Water News Online
SANTA FE, N.M. -- New Mexico wants to use some of the credit it has built up in its water deliveries to Texas to help ease the effects of drought this year.
Under the Rio Grande Compact, New Mexico is forbidden from storing water in three reservoirs upstream from Elephant Butte Reservoir when Elephant Butte is very low.
But the state has delivered more water than required to Elephant Butte for Texas in past years. New Mexico has built up a credit of about 265,000 acre feet in the reservoir.
The compact, which splits the river's water among Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, allows New Mexico to relinquish part of that credit water and then store an equal amount of water upstream -- if Texas agrees.
New Mexico recently made an offer to Texas to relinquish a substantial amount of credit water, said John D'Antonio, New Mexico state engineer.
``It would help just about everybody,'' he said.
Years of drought have strained water supplies up and down the Rio Grande and left Elephant Butte at 19 percent of capacity, less than a third of where it should be at this time of year.
The relinquished credit water would be released from Elephant Butte, which would help farmers in southern New Mexico as well as El Paso, Texas.
The farmers this year face an irrigation season with just 15 percent of normal supplies. The credit water would bring that up to about 25 percent of normal, said Ken Maxey, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
``To us, it looks like a pretty good deal all around,'' Maxey said.
The ability to store water at El Vado Reservoir in northern New Mexico would be a big help to the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District but still not enough for a full supply, said Subhas Shah, the district's chief executive officer.
``That won't be enough for the season yet until we get rainfall or other water,'' he said, adding that how long stored water lasts depends on the weather.
The Bureau of Reclamation also would be able to store some water to be released to help keep the river flowing for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow, Maxey said.
Current supplies for the minnow are expected to run out June 15, he said.
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