$2M deal aims to keep Rio Grande flowing in N.M.
ALBUQUERQUE — Federal water managers and a major utility have reached a $2 million agreement that aims to keep one of North America’s longest rivers from going dry in the stretch that runs through New Mexico’s largest metropolitan area.
The lease approved late Wednesday by board members of the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority will provide the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation with additional water to preserve the flow of the Rio Grande.
New Mexico’s capital city also is helping to mitigate losses to the river farther north.
The lease agreement comes as the state grapples with an ongoing severe drought. Like the rest of the American Southwest, a dismal winter resulted in little snowpack and historically low spring runoff and summer rains have been spotty at best.
Irrigation managers in the Middle Rio Grande Valley warned this week that within days they will exhaust the last of their stored water, leaving the river to its meager natural flows.
The lease agreement gives federal managers up to 20,000 acrefeet to supplement the river with the goal of keeping it wet at least through October. An acre-foot is enough to supply a typical U.S. household for a year.
Depending on conditions, water not used this year can be released in 2019 if needed and the federal government will make payments to the utility only for whatever water ends up being released.
The agreement comes at a critical time, officials said.
“As water supplies run low in northern reservoirs, it’s important for the public to understand that this agreement is essentially what’s keeping water flowing in the Albuquerque reach of the Rio Grande,” said Albuquerque City Councilor and water board Chairwoman Trudy Jones.
Federal officials said they plan to seek more funding next year for continued leasing.
The latest map shows drought lessened its grip on New Mexico and much of the West over the last week. Still, more than onethird of New Mexico is dealing with the worst categories of drought, including a large swath of the Four Corners region where the state borders Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
One of North America’s longest rivers, the Rio Grande was running thick Thursday in the Albuquerque area with silt and other debris following a night of rain.
Despite short-term relief for some areas thanks to the monsoon season, forecasters have said it will take more than a single robust rainy season to erase the water deficit.
About 30 miles of the Rio Grande below Isleta Pueblo and north of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge were transformed into a sandy wash earlier this spring, prompting the rescue of endangered silvery minnow.
Officials say the lease will help meet endangered species requirements.
John Stomp, the water utility’s chief operating officer, said the utility has been able to lease water to the federal government, the local irrigation district and others because planning and conservation over the decades has built up reserves.