It gives you a lot of water and then turns it off.” A map released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s drought monitor shows that more than 20 percent of New Mexico – scattered areas in the northern part of the state – is in exceptional drought, the most serious category, and more than 99 percent of the state is in some kind of drought.
“The rain made lots of silvery minnow babies,” Gensler said.
Some parts of New Mexico got a lot of rain from a system that moved into the state Monday and lingered into Thursday.
“But the moisture we got (this week) is only going to go so far,” Fontenot said.
I’m cautiously optimistic, but we have to wait and see.” This week’s rain, as vigorous as it was in some areas, did not stop the water levels in the Elephant Butte Reservoir, five miles north of Truth and Consequences, and Caballo Reservoir, 16 miles south of TorC, from dropping low enough to trigger a Rio Grande Compact provision prohibiting the storage of additional water in upstream reservoirs.
According to Article VII of the compact, New Mexico cannot store water in northern reservoirs such as El Vado, Abiquiu and Heron when the combined waters at Elephant Butte and Caballo recede to less than 400,000 acre-feet.
The Conservancy District’s Gensler said the total water in Elephant Butte and Caballo dropped below 400,000 acre-feet Sunday, putting the Article VII restriction into effect for the first time since early this year.
On Thursday, combined water in the two reservoirs was at about 394,000 acre-feet, Gensler said.
“It’s dropping pretty fast.” OK for now Gensler said the Article VII restriction would probably not change much for the irrigators on the 70,000 acres of cropland served by the Conservancy District.
And he noted that even though Article VII restricts the storage of additional water, it does not prohibit the release of water that had already been in storage.