El Vado Dam closure strains Rio Grande Valley farmers amid water shortages

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – As irrigation season in New Mexico winds down, farmers along the Rio Grande are grappling with increasingly scarce water supplies. Despite a relatively active monsoon season, the water levels in the Rio Grande Valley remain critically low.

Experts warn that these challenges will only grow in the coming years with the situation complicated by the ongoing closure of the El Vado Dam.

John Fleck, writer-in-residence at the Utton Transboundary Resources Center at the University of New Mexico School of Law, emphasizes the importance of El Vado Dam in managing water resources.

“We have dams that store water in the spring and release it in late summer,” Fleck explains. “That’s been normal for a century, but that’s changing now with El Vado Dam on the Rio Chama out of commission.”

El Vado Dam, one of only four steel-plated dams in the country, has been under maintenance since 2022. The dam’s unique design, featuring a steel faceplate to hold back water, has proved problematic over time.

“It leaks,” Fleck states. “Steel faceplates weren’t a great idea for dam design.”

Without El Vado Dam’s ability to store runoff from winter snowmelt, farmers along the Rio Grande are left to rely solely on the river’s current flow for irrigation and limited use of other nearby dams.

“The people who farm here in the middle Rio Grande Valley don’t have the ability to use that saved-up water from spring to irrigate now in the late summer,” Fleck said. “They’re stuck with whatever is coming down the river naturally.”

The dam’s closure is just one piece of a larger issue. Fleck notes that farmers will need to adapt to life with less water in the future.

“Farmers, irrigators are going to have to get used to the risk of very low water supplies in the summer,” he adds.

With repairs to the El Vado Dam delayed, the dam will not be able to hold water until at least 2026. The timeline for completion remains uncertain after work stopped earlier this year and a complete redesign is needed.

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