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Rio Grande Water Supply Discussion Planned For Las Cruces

NMFO

  The region’s Rio Grande water supply will be discussed at the next public meeting of the Rio Grande Citizens Forum sponsored by the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC).  The meeting takes place on Thursday, April 23, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Las Cruces City Hall, Rooms 2007 B & C, Las Cruces, NM 88001.  

   Bert Cortez with the Bureau of Reclamation will discuss conditions in the Rio Grande basin affecting water availability for users in southern New Mexico and the El Paso, Texas-Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua region.   With below-average precipitation in much of the basin, Reclamation expects to deliver less than a full supply to users during a shortened irrigation season.  Mr. Cortez will discuss planned reservoir operations at Elephant Butte and Caballo Dams for the 2015 irrigation season, including the planned water release dates for each reservoir and the start of deliveries for the U.S. irrigation districts and Mexico.

   In other business, Antonio Solo with the USIBWC will give an update on the agency’s Rio Grande desilting operations.  The purposes for removing silt from the river channel are: to assure that water released from upstream reservoirs is delivered efficiently to users, to maintain the channel’s ability to convey flood flows, to alleviate silting up of irrigation canals, and to minimize waterlog on farmland in the vicinity of the river.  The USIBWC is presently performing desilting operations in the Rio Grande in accordance with the agency’s River Management Plan.   The focus of this effort is at arroyo and drain confluences where sediment tends to accumulate. 

   The USIBWC established the Rio Grande Citizens Forum in 1999 to facilitate the exchange of information regarding USIBWC activities on the Rio Grande between Percha Dam, New Mexico and Fort Quitman, Texas. It is designed to bring together community members, enabling the early and continued two-way flow of information, concerns, values, and needs between USIBWC and the general public, environmentalists, irrigation districts, municipalities, and others interested in the river.