Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District faces water concerns as irrigation season wraps up

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – As the irrigation season draws to a close, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) has reported a mixed outlook for water availability.

According to Anne Marken, a water operations manager at MRGCD, the region is expected to exhaust its stored water by mid to late August. Although conditions in the Rio Grande are an improvement over last year, there remains significant concern over low water levels for the remainder of the season.

Marken noted, “MRGCD anticipates at the current rate to be out of its stored water by mid to late August, so in the next couple of weeks.”

This time of year typically presents challenges as high mountain snow melts and the river’s flow diminishes. “We’re in that time of year where all that high mountain snow has melted, and the basin’s really not producing enough water in the river to meet the demand for Middle Valley farmers and their crops,” Marken explained.

However, this year has seen some relief due to beneficial monsoon rains.

Marken said, “The monsoon flows have really come at pretty opportune moments, allowing us to delay our releases from storage. The fact that we were able to wait until the end of July to release that storage water was really helpful in providing certainty in water delivery to farmers this late in the irrigation season.”

Despite these rains, the MRGCD is facing challenges with water storage, particularly at El Vado Dam, which remains unavailable for water storage.

“It’s true that El Vado is not available to us and likely won’t be in the near future, but we are working to figure out some alternative locations for storing water,” Marken said. “We will still have those Rio Grande compact restrictions on that storage.”

Looking ahead, the conservancy district does not plan to end the irrigation season early. Instead, they will continue to release available water and remain hopeful for additional rainfall.

“We’re going to see pretty low flows and probably limited irrigation deliveries for the rest of the irrigation season.”

The forecast for the upcoming year is uncertain, with the National Weather Service predicting a shift to a La Niña weather pattern, which typically brings warmer and drier conditions.

“It’s a little early to tell what the snowpack is going to look like. We’ll need to monitor the weather patterns closely as we move forward.”

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