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John Fleck / Journal Staff W riter Tue, Apr 10, 2012
D e m a n d E x c e e d s S u p p ly
Kelly Redm ond, a governm ent clim atologist who lives at the interface between the
water nature provides and the hum ans who want to use it, cam e up with the best
definition of drought I’ve seen: “insufficient water to m eet needs.”
The word “drought” m ost often conjures up the natural side of the equation – the
am ount of rain and snow that falls from the sky. But Redm ond, of the W estern
Regional Clim ate Center in Reno, captures a central truth about life in an arid
landscape.
Drought is not only about supply. It also is about dem and.
Redm ond’s words cam e to m ind over the past week as I watched the differing reactions to the Rio Grande runoff forecast
for April.
At San M arcial, the last Rio Grande m easurem ent point above Elephant Butte, the forecast calls for 29 percent of the
long-term average. If it holds up, it would m ean 13 of the past 15 years have had below-average runoff.
Any way you look at it, that qualifies as a drought.
The result is very little river water for farm ers. “W e’re crushed,” said Gary Esslinger, who m anages the Elephant Butte
Irrigation District, delivering what water there is to Lower Rio Grande Valley farm ers.
W et years have a way of covering up a m ultitude of water m anagem ent sins. Drought exposes them for all to see.
Back in the 1990s, we had all the sam e underlying water m anagem ent problem s in this state, but a string of wet years
left Elephant Butte full and allowed us to ignore our problem s.
A run of 13 dry years out of 15 years since then on the Lower Rio Grande has left us with insufficient water to m eet the
needs of all the water users in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. 10/24/13 Demand Exceeds Supply | ABQJournal Online
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It’s hard to keep track of who’s suing who as a result.
The New M exico Attorney General’s Office last year sued the federal governm ent over the way Elephant Butte’s water is
accounted for and m anaged, a feud that has either directly or indirectly dragged in other water users up and down the
river, from the farm ers in the Albuquerque reach of the river to Las Cruces, all choosing sides.
M eanwhile, Colorado, New M exico and Texas can’t agree on how to account for who owns how m uch of the pool that
sits now in Elephant Butte. At a m eeting of the Rio Grande Com pact Com m ission in Austin last m onth, representatives
of the three states ended up in a standoff on the question. The water accounting sheets developed by the three states
explaining their com peting views of hydrologic reality run to 23 pages total.
Then in the past few weeks, the early release of water from Elephant Butte to m eet U.S. treaty obligations to deliver
water to M exico triggered an international tiff that still hasn’t settled. U.S. users com plain that starting releases this
early in the year, as M exico requested, ensures that water will be wasted as it m akes its way down to M exico’s
diversion gates, soaking into the dry riverbed – losses that have to be borne entirely by the U.S. farm ers.
Rep. Steve Pearce, R-NM , called the problem “a huge loss for those who so desperately depend on this water for their
jobs. Farm ers in this area have already suffered the effects of drought and do not need additional interference.”
Texas farm ers, who also feared they would be hurt, juggled their irrigation schedules. They hoped that running som e of
their water down the river at the sam e tim e as M exico’s water would help cut the losses that otherwise would have been
inevitable as the dry riverbed soaked up the scarce supplies.
Underlying the drought-triggered fussing is a long-term court battle, m ore than two decades old with no clear end in
sight, over “adjudication” of the Lower Rio Grande’s water – the process under state law of determ ining who is entitled to
how m uch of the valley’s scarce water. One key question in that litigation is how to account for groundwater pum ped by
farm ers when their river water supplies fall short.
None of this would be m uch of a problem but for 90,000-plus acres of thirsty farm land in the Elephant Butte Irrigation
District. That’s the “needs” part of Redm ond’s definition.
The current drought should not com e as a surprise. The San M arcial runoff num bers for the past 15 years bear a strong
resem blance to the drought of the 1950s – close enough in historical m em ory that it’s the kind of eventuality worth
planning for.
It appears m ost of the Lower Rio Grande’s farm ers will get by OK again this year by pum ping groundwater (again) to
m ake up for the river’s shortfalls. But the farm ers’ problem s are a rem inder that nature is providing New M exico
insufficient water to m eet our needs. W e’re in drought. 10/24/13 Demand Exceeds Supply | ABQJournal Online
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UpFront is a daily front-page opinion colum n. Com m ent directly to John Fleck at 823-3916 or jfleck@ abqjournal.com . Go
to www.abqjournal.com /letters/new to subm it a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
