Local farmers’ water fortunes will largely depend on precipitation this year.
Recent snowstorms have improved the area’s water availability outlook, Anne Marken told the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District Board of Directors Monday. However, she said, the water supply in the basins that serve the district is still expected to be about half of the historical median.
“These storms have helped improve conditions slightly, but not enough to bring them close to the average for this time of year,” Marken said. “We’re still trending below average.”
Current conditions are similar to last year, she said, but were well below where the region was in 2024, a year that resulted in snowpack levels near peak median.
Marken said the district will be unable to store any native Rio Grande water for the Middle Valley’s use, due to New Mexico’s “water debt” under the Rio Grande Compact, which governs water distribution among the states of Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
New Mexico’s cumulative compact debt at the end of 2024 was 124,000 acre-feet, Marken said, with preliminary accounting figures showing another 7,500 acre-feet likely to be added for 2025.
An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, or roughly enough water to cover a football field to a depth of a foot. It’s generally considered enough to supply two or three households for a year.
Marken said there is considerable uncertainty regarding water availability once runoff ends this summer and fall, and that water supplies for local users will be limited. Furthermore, she said, farmers should expect extended periods between irrigation deliveries.
Marken said there’s a lot of uncertainty between now and the end of the snow-accumulation season, but the National Weather Service’s two-week outlook shows the basin is expected to experience warmer-than-average temperatures, with equal chances for above- or below-average precipitation. Marken said a three-month outlook is the same.
“But these outlooks just show probabilities rather than certainties,” she said. “However, if the basin does not receive significant accumulation in the coming months, spring runoff could be short and relatively small.”
Also at the meeting, directors voted to increase the water service charge by $1.78 per acre to $61.03 for the 2026 irrigation season. Customers will be billed at the new rate starting in November.
The rate increase was based on a change in the consumer price index, Jason Casuga, CEO of the MRGCD, said.
Board Chair John Kelly noted that the body last year decided to adjust the rate annually based on the CPI, rather than return to its pre-COVID practice of “leaving it the same and doing a big catch-up every five years.”
The board also voted to keep the MRGCD water bank closed, meaning the district will not lease water to lands without existing water rights. It will allow “alternate curtailment” — a process that permits landowners to transfer water rights among parcels they own.
Casuga said staff is working with legal counsel to refine those policies to ensure they remain within the bounds of state law.
