Elephant Butte Irrigation District is reaching the end of another successful irrigation season said James Narvaez, the District’s Irrigation System Director. He confirmed that the last day for farmers to order water will be September 22 at 4:30 pm. Final water deliveries must be made by September 30 as the system will be out of water by that date. He cautioned, “If at all possible, do not wait till the 22nd to order your water. When we hit the 30th we’re done. We expect the demand to be very high for the end of season water orders.” Orders can be placed online at www.ebid-nm.org through the Farmer Services portal or by calling the Water Records Office at 575-524-8003.
Narvaez said the District hit its targeted efficiency rates, which has allowed them to continue the season till the end of September. “Late rains also impacted the demand,” he noted, “This may have allowed some farmers to in effect receive an extra irrigation from stormwater without having to order water.” This year the canals reached capacity during the month of June as the District saw its highest demand. Historically, the highest demand month has been July because of the heat but this year July’s late rains and sporadic storms through August kept the demand lower. “With the later rainfalls we never really got up to capacity again because of the lowered demand,” he said.
Examining his records he said, “September 30th finish date will make the latest we’ve had in about 15 years. Thanks of course to the efforts of the farmers who are watering more efficiently and communication and coordination with ditch riders that helped improve the overall delivery.”
The final flat rate irrigation took place over Labor Day weekend, September 2 and 3rd. That brought the District to a total of four flat rate irrigations for the season, the most in several years. Narvaez says, “Flat rate irrigations seemed to improve this year thanks to the efforts of the flat raters who worked together to keep their ditches clean and accomplish their irrigations efficiently.” Going into next season he said, “We’d encourage flat raters to continue to work towards developing community ditch associations in order for EBID to better serve their needs. They can contact Orlando Tirre at the Operations Office at 575-526-6671, ext. 435 for more information about this simple process.”
Narvaez commented, “Although we had 24 inches of water, it was still a late allocation. This puts us in a better position for the beginning of the 2018 irrigation season. If forecasts hold and demand dictates we could start up sooner next year.”
Projected estimated totals for the season are as follows:
Over 300,000 cumulative acres irrigated
Average monthly acres irrigated approximately 65,000
About 135,000 acre feet delivered for crop consumption
Average monthly diversion about 30,000 acre feet
Immediately after the close of the irrigation season, EBID’s maintenance season begins. District staff and employees shift gears and begin to use the dry months to improve District facilities and delivery efficiencies, making the entire system work better and smarter every year.