The Rio Grande has been dry in Albuquerque for about a month, and while some expected rains within the next few days might mitigate matters a bit, the overall situation with the river this summer is fairly dire.
Anne Marken, River Operations Manager for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, said this summer’s problems could be seen coming in the spring.
“The snow pack in the basin this year was quite low. It's not the lowest that we've seen, but it's bottom 10 percent,” Marken said.
There’s about a 10-mile stretch in Albuquerque that’s dry as we head into the weekend. The river dries up a little north of the Montaño Bridge, and stays dry until the wastewater treatment plant just south of the Rio Bravo Bridge. Treated water restores flow for a short stretch, but south of there, it soon dries up again.
“In the Middle Valley, the Rio Grande is dry for about 40 miles in the San Acacia reach, which is down by Socorro,” Marken said. “That's well above what we typically see in any year. There's river-channel drying in the Isleta reach, which is what goes along near Belen. There's about 18 miles total dry in that reach of the river.”
As a result, water delivery to farmers along the river has slowed to a trickle.
“The fact that the river is dry through Albuquerque is an indication that there's not enough water coming into the Middle Rio Grande to meet the needs of Middle Valley farmers and their crops,” Marken said. “It's only enough actually, to meet the needs of the six Middle Rio Grande pueblos and their priority water right with their priority lands. And what that means is that we're diverting water from the river north of Albuquerque, and we're delivering it to the Pueblos. So in the Middle Valley, upstream of Isleta Pueblo, there's no Pueblo irrigation happening, and this has really meant extensive periods between irrigation deliveries to farmers, pretty much throughout the Middle Valley.”
The National Weather Service predicts a monsoon surge this weekend and into next week.
“If we do see significant rain that actually brings water into the river, the district will divert and deliver that water to farmers as it’s available,” Marken said. “And so we are encouraging farmers to be ready, because those rain events can happen very quickly and with very little notice.”
