Commentary: In opening remarks at a joint open house held September 7 in Las Cruces by the Office of the State Engineer and Elephant Butte Irrigation District, State Engineer Tom Blaine commented, “This was the first time in over 18 years that the entire state has been out of the drought condition.”
Dr. Phil King, chief hydrologist and civil engineering consultant for EBID explained the water situation that led to some over diversion of irrigation water this year. Reservoir storage started off quite low at the beginning of the year. He noted that snowpack over the last several years has been producing less runoff and EBID cautiously watched that situation as they began discussing the 2017 water allocation. This year’s late snowfall and late runoff, while beneficial, also caused problems Blaine pointed out. One of these was anticipation.
“Farmers were anticipating that we were going to have a low water yield again this year and a lot of farmers used their groundwater rights early in the year in anticipation of a poor runoff year. As time moved on and into June we started seeing runoff showing up in the reservoir that wasn’t anticipated,” he said. This is difficult to plan around, he acknowledged, “EBID is kind of walking that tight rope, looking at how do we allocate the water. We don’t want to give too much too early because it may never show up. But we want to make sure that we can have water that’s available to our farmers and so it’s a real balance.”
“We wound up at 16 inches in May and went to 24 inches at the June board meeting,” King said, “…a lot of farmers had pumped two maybe two and a half feet before we came on down here, especially in the Mesilla Valley where we didn’t start until late May. So they had to start up their season, irrigate all the way up until late May before they had any surface water in the system.” That two foot allotment then “put people right at the brink or even over the brink of that 4.5 acre foot per acre cap that most farmers have, a few of them have proved up to 5.5, with a whole bunch of season left in the year.”
Blaine explained, “Diversion of groundwater is simply a function of how much surface water is available. You can use that groundwater to augment or supplement the surface source.” The total amount of water that can be used is combined surface and groundwater. If a farmer receives a surface water allotment of 2 feet he can only pump another 2.5 acre feet to stay within his allotted water rights.
The OSE and EBID, Blaine stressed, “…are locked arms on this…ready to solve this problem that was created because we had such a great year. The problem that we need to solve is some over diversion. I think the most important thing I want you to take from this meeting is we need to get our meter readings in. Meter readings are extremely important because that’s how we administer the water. Even if you have over diverted or think you’ve over-diverted you’re not in trouble. We’re down here to work out solutions and figure out how we can navigate through this issue that we’re having this year.”
Both offices emphasized that in an over diversion situation there is greater flexibility in finding ways to resolve it early in the process. Blaine said, “I want to encourage everybody to communicate with our office because communication is really the key. The main purpose of being down here today is to solve the technical problems. We don’t have a legal problem because if we can solve this as a technical problem then everybody is going into the next irrigation season optimistic and whole.” He said every season has been different since the start of the District, “It takes a balance and sometimes there’s extremes and this is kind of one of those years of extremes.”
EBID Board of Directors President Robert Faubion explained, “We all want to manage the aquifer and its resource better… it’s about finding solutions to [over diversions] and having a soft landing for everybody down here.” He strongly encouraged farmers to use all of their surface water as it is counted in their annual allotment. “If you suspect that you’re going to over divert or know that you’ve over diverted, don’t be in a panic…set an appointment up with the local office, go in, maybe it’s a question of you were pumping for a neighbor and it wasn’t included in your OWMAN plan…The OSE has been very proactive in helping facilitate that kind of ‘I’ll pump less so you can pump more’ kind of transaction… Ryan (Serrano, OSE Water Master for the Lower Rio Grande) and his staff are great at working some of these issues out.” An OWMAN plan provides a degree of flexibility for farmers in managing their water rights across different parcels of land.
Faubion reminded the audience that there is also a market for surface water and said the District is working on ideas to facilitate this process. If a farmer needs to access that it won’t count against their allotment. “The Office of the State Engineer and all of his staff are working very closely with EBID to come up with a sensible, logical, non-punitive solution to this year’s over diversions. And we’re working together to craft solutions for different scenarios down the road.”
He said the bottom line is that farmers need to use their surface water allotment. “It’s actually worse for the system if they don’t use it. You’ve got to get that surface water on the ground... it recharges the aquifer. It also causes the farmers to pump less groundwater so it’s kind of a double benefit to the aquifer, increasing recharge and decreasing withdrawal from the aquifer.” Farmers who use all their surface water benefit the health of the system and show good stewardship he said.
The OSE and EBID both discussed the lack of reporting of groundwater use. The reporting rate sat at only 37% until recently but has risen to 50% in the last few weeks. This creates great difficulty in characterizing the problem and developing solutions. King said, “If we’re to come up with good solutions we need good data. We can’t fly blind here so take home message number two is report, report, report. You’re required to; it is good management to measure what you’re doing. If you can’t measure your water you’re not managing it. Measure your water, report it to Ryan even if it does show that you go over; we’ll figure it out.”
Serrano’s office actively works with farmers to gain voluntary compliance on reporting their water use. “If we don’t have the information we can’t come up with solutions,” he said, “…the only way we can gain that knowledge is by getting the information, reporting your meter readings, letting us know where your water is going, which lands you’re irrigating. If we can figure all those things out then there’s a good chance we can get you back into compliance and maintain where you’re at, make sure you don’t go over.” He encouraged those with questions to come in and talk to them, “We’re here to help and we want to help so please come in and report your readings. Use all of your surface water, that’s a key component.”
Rep. Bill Gomez asked about alternatives for farmers who over allocate their water. Faubion responded, “We’re still working through some of those solutions. I think we’ll have a better picture of what the options are when we have all of the meter readings in. if somebody comes in right now we can work with them to look at leasing some surface rights, work with them on an OWMAN.” Serrano agreed and said over diversion problems can often be resolved by understanding a farmer’s operation better. However, King reminded listeners of budgeting principle 101, “If we do have people who are just flat over using water then they need to live within their means.”
Gary Esslinger, EBID Manager and Treasurer, reminded attendees, “EBID offers a well meter RT unit; once we put that into your well system, it’s a onetime expense and then your meter reading goes automatically to the state engineer every quarter…we think this is beneficial to the farmer, helps him manage his water.” The District is working with the state engineer on improving opportunities for farmers to acquire these well meter RT units.
King commented on the good working relationship EBID has with OSE, “We agree on a lot of principles, number one, use all your surface water, number 2, report your data, and number 3, we want to come up with solutions to this; they’re not punishment for something that really is in many ways beyond the farmers’ control.” Farmers are strongly encouraged to talk to their neighbors and let them know that both OSE and EBID want to work together to develop reasonable solutions to over diversion problems during this “odd” year and out into the future.
“EBID and the Office of the State Engineer are working together to get this solved,” Blaine emphasized.