Font ResizeLAS CRUCES - Doña Ana County farmers are facing an even more dismal water season than previously thought, irrigation officials said Wednesday.
Run-off forecasts have dropped significantly since January because snowfall hasn't kept pace in key mountain ranges and the snow that is already on the ground isn't projected to reach reservoirs at a rate previously expected, officials said.
In January, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District was expecting about 88 percent of average snowmelt to reach Elephant Butte Lake from March to July, the run-off season, said Phil King, consultant engineer for the district. That forecast dropped to 71 percent in February and - unexpectedly - to 52 percent this month, he said.
"Things are kind of deteriorating at this point," said King, also a faculty member in New Mexico State University's civil engineering department. "There isn't a lot of time left in the snow season for a big (storm) to come through at save us at this point."
No start date to irrigate
After the presentation, the district's board of directors didn't set an amount for the initial allotment to farmers or the start date to the irrigation season. Many farmers in the district have been awaiting that information in order to make important planting decisions for the season.
The district considers a full allotment to be 3 acre-feet per acre throughout a season. An acre-foot contains about 326,000 gallons, enough to supply about one to two U.S. households in a given
But, if the district were to set the initial allotment now, based on the little water in storage at reservoirs, King said it would amount to just 0.27 acre-feet, or, 3.2 acre-inches.
Farmers agreed that's not enough for a single irrigation, which takes at least 4 or 5 acre-inches. The board is waiting for enough run-off to reach the reservoirs before launching the irrigation season, officials said.
"Clearly, we won't be starting up in March," King said. "This is starting to look a lot more like May, I'm afraid."
King said there's a "real possibility of less than 1 acre-foot for the season."
What are the options?
In light of the poor water year, some farmers will buy water from neighbors or consolidate their surface water on less acreage, leaving the rest of their land fallow. Others will grow cotton, considered one of the least water-intensive crops.
And growers with ground wells will rely heavily upon them.
But even that has its downside, because pumps require energy and fuel prices are on the rise, said Willie Koenig, an EBID board member who farms acreage between Mesquite and Vado. Running a pump can cost as much as $30 per hour, he said.
Koenig said he'll cut his farmed acreage from about 1,200 to 900 because of the lack of water. Plus, he said he won't grow as much silage corn - last year he farmed about 400 acres - which takes a lot of water.
"I'm going heavy with cotton," he said.
The district went into the winter with little carryover water left from last season. That meant it was relying on winter snow for irrigation water this year.
EBID manager Gary Esslinger said a problem is that snowfall in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado mountains has been evaporating into the atmosphere, instead of melting into the Rio Grande.
Hatch-area farmer Jerry Franzoy, also an EBID board member, said growers in that area don't have the groundwater availability that their counterparts have in the Mesilla Valley. He said groundwater also is more saline in the Hatch area, which can hurt chile and onion crops.
Public meetings
In the past, the board has set the allocation based on forecasts, only for the expected water not to materialize.
The EBID board voted Tuesday to ask upstream users to relinquish 100,000 acre-feet of water that's credited to them in Elephant Butte Lake. If that happens, it could speed up the start of the district's irrigation season, said James Narvaez, hydrologist for EBID.
EBID is hosting public meetings about the water season.
Narvaez said the water year is shaping up to be "almost identical to 2003."
"And what did we end up with in 2003? Eight inches total," he said.
Diana M. Alba can be reached at (575) 541-5443,
By the numbers
•Snowpack in the Rio Grande Basin is 68 percent of average.
•At the same point last year, it sat at 114 percent.
•Spring run-off into Elephant Butte Lake is expected to be 52 percent of average.
•Elephant Butte Lake held 504,280 acre-feet (23 percent full) on March 1. The water belongs to multiple upstream and downstream users.
•At the same time last year, the lake held 561,500 acre-feet.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
If you go
•What: EBID growers meeting
•When: 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. today
•Where: Sparky's Burgers, BBQ and Espresso, 115 N. Franklin St., Hatch
•Info: (575) 526-6671
