Rio Grande Conservancy District (NM) Announces That Irrigation Water Will Run Out Mid-June

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LOS LUNAS — Only months into the 2022 irrigation season, Jason Casuga, chief engineer and CEO of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, told the 50-plus farmers gathered at the Los Lunas Transportation Center last week the district was predicting irrigation waters would run out by the first week of June. During a follow up interview on Friday, Casuga told the News-Bulletin the district might be able to keep ditches running until the third week of June.

“Based on the water meeting today (Friday, May 27), we’re hopeful that while a lot of the native water will be gone somewhere in the second week of June, if we can get there, we plan to use San Juan Chama water to extend that out another week, week and a half,” Casuga said. “If the best happens — outside of getting rain — we could get into the third week of June before we run out.”

Irrigation water for the MRGCD, which takes in the areas where its irrigation system runs through Sandoval, Bernalillo, Valencia and Socorro counties, comes from the Rio Grande Basin, which extends across the state line north into Colorado. Most of the water comes from runoff from the snow pack at high elevations, and is referred to as native water. The San Juan Chama water comes to the state through a pipeline project that pulls water from a different basin in Colorado. “What we deliver to mid valley farmers is that surface water … The way I like to explain it is there’s a cup of water with a straw in it. When you are drinking with your mouth, that’s surface water. Drinking from the straw is groundwater,” he said. “The two are linked so if there is over pumping (of groundwater) it does reduce the amount of surface water through infiltration.”

EDIT

This irrigation season marks the second year of the district’s voluntary fallowing program, funded by $15 million in federal dollars allocated by the state. In 2021, about 760 agricultural acres were idled, with owners receiving $300 per acre. This year, there are about 2,600 acres in the program at $425 per acre. The program has proved to be unpopular among farmers and MRGCD board members as well.

EDIT

https://news-bulletin.com/middle-rio-grande-conservancy-district-has-no-more-water/

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