Rio Grande

About the Rio Grande

• In northern New Mexico the Rio Grande has cut an 800-foot-deep gorge across the Taos Plateau, a stretch now protected as the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument and Wild and Scenic River.1
• Below Cochiti the river crosses the Middle Rio Grande valley, where the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District has managed irrigation, drainage and flood control since the 1920s for farms, bosque and six Pueblo communities.23
• Farther south the river is stored at Elephant Butte and Caballo reservoirs and released under the Rio Grande Compact to irrigate the Mesilla Valley around Las Cruces before reaching Texas.45

This report follows 474 miles (764 km) of the Rio Grande across 6 watershed segments, from Upper Rio Grande downstream to El Paso-Las Cruces. At the lower end of the report the river drains about 29,315 square miles. Named tributaries joining it here include the Rio Puerco, Rio Chama, Jemez River, Galisteo Creek and Rio Pueblo de Taos. Reservoirs on this reach: Elephant Butte Reservoir, Caballo Reservoir and Cochiti Lake. Largest urban areas near it: Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Los Lunas and Española. 29 gauges with at least 26 weeks of daily flow cover 1889 to 2026.

From the archive: NHDPlus river network, WBD watersheds, NHD waterbodies, TIGER urban areas and the report's gauges.

From the headwaters down

Each watershed segment in order, with last week's flow rated against the same week in 1991–2020.

1. 1

   Segment 1: Upper Rio Grande

   2,839 cfs last week much above normal.

   Towns: Española.

   7 acequias along this reach, including Acequia De Chamita, Acequia De Los Indios, Acequia De Salazar, Acequia Del Alamo.

   Water 11.5 °C at Rio Grande At Otowi Bridge, NM. Median conductance 302 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 174% of normal.

2. 2

   Segment 2: Rio Grande-Santa Fe

   2,897 cfs last week much above normal.

   Towns: White Rock.

   Water 13.4 °C at Rio Grande Below Cochiti Dam, NM. Median conductance 297 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 182% of normal.

3. 3

   Segment 3: Rio Grande-Albuquerque

   3,388 cfs last week much above normal, 169 dry days this year.

   Towns: Albuquerque, Los Lunas, Socorro.

   Median conductance 352 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 172% of normal.

4. 4

   Segment 4: Elephant Butte Reservoir

   2,791 cfs last week much above normal, 176 dry days this year.

   Median conductance 918 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 162% of normal.

5. 5

   Segment 5: Caballo

   2 cfs last week below normal, 68 dry days this year.

   Towns: Truth or Consequences.

   Median conductance 564 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 155% of normal.

6. 6

   Segment 6: El Paso-Las Cruces

   1 cfs last week normal, 42 dry days this year.

   Water 28.3 °C at Rio Grande Below Leasburg Dam At Fort Selden, NM. Median conductance 666 µS/cm in the 2020s.

Culture

• Six Rio Grande pueblos in the Middle Valley — Cochiti, Santo Domingo (Kewa), San Felipe, Santa Ana, Sandia and Isleta — receive irrigation water through the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and vote as qualified electors in its elections.2
• Pueblo farmers were irrigating the Rio Grande valley with acequia-style ditches for centuries before Spanish colonization, and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District later incorporated many of these existing pueblo and community acequias into its system.3
• Cochiti Dam was built on Cochiti Pueblo land by the Army Corps of Engineers in partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Pueblo; the Pueblo received settlement funds and rights to develop recreation and commercial sites around the resulting lake.6
• El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Spanish colonial trade road established after the 1598 Oñate expedition, followed the Rio Grande valley from Ohkay Owingeh through Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Socorro and Las Cruces on its way to Mexico City.7
• Acequias — centuries-old, communally managed irrigation ditches that also function as local units of government — remain a defining feature of Hispanic farming communities in the Rio Grande valley, according to the New Mexico Acequia Association.8

Acequias

• Acequia de Alcalde (Alcalde, Rio Arriba County)910
• Acequia De Chamita
• Acequia De Los Indios
• Acequia De Salazar
• Acequia Del Alamo
• Acequia Del Medio
• Acequia Del Montoya
• Acequia Del Ojito

From the State Engineer's acequia map, which covers mainly northern New Mexico, and cited records of acequia governance. Within 1.5 km of the river.

Habitat

• The Rio Grande silvery minnow, listed endangered in 1994, now survives in less than 5% of its historic range; its federal critical habitat covers the 163 river miles from Cochiti Dam down to the headwaters of Elephant Butte Reservoir.12
• The endangered southwestern willow flycatcher breeds in dense cottonwood-willow riparian thickets along southwestern rivers including stretches of the Rio Grande in New Mexico; it was federally listed in 1995.13
• Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1939 along the Rio Grande floodplain near San Antonio, protects restored cottonwood and willow bosque, wetlands and marshes that host tens of thousands of wintering sandhill cranes, geese and ducks.14
• The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District manages roughly 30,000 acres of cottonwood bosque (riparian forest) along the river through the Albuquerque valley.3
• The Rio Grande del Norte National Monument protects 74 miles of the river as it runs through the Rio Grande Gorge, providing a wildlife corridor and winter habitat within its roughly 242,500 protected acres.1

Reservoirs

From the archive: National Inventory of Dams (USACE) and the reservoir registry.

Water users

• The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, formed under the 1923 Conservancy Act, operates nearly 1,200 miles of canals, laterals and drains to irrigate and drain farmland and bosque through the Albuquerque valley while providing flood protection.3
• The Elephant Butte Irrigation District delivers Rio Grande Project water to about 90,640 acres of farmland in the Mesilla and Rincon valleys around Las Cruces, where water orders are tallied for alfalfa, cotton, orchard and vegetable crops.15
• The 1938 Rio Grande Compact among Colorado, New Mexico and Texas apportions the river's water and sets New Mexico's delivery obligation into Elephant Butte Reservoir, whose water irrigates southern New Mexico and supplies the El Paso area.5
• Albuquerque's water utility draws its San Juan-Chama Project water (transbasin Colorado River water delivered into the Rio Grande watershed) from the river through a diversion and treatment plant that has supplied a large share of the city's drinking water since 2008.16
• Santa Fe's Buckman Direct Diversion has drawn Rio Grande water for city and county drinking supplies since 2011, reducing reliance on groundwater pumping.17

Surface water withdrawn, 2020

In the counties this river crosses (Bernalillo, Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Valencia): 711,135 acre-feet. County totals include other streams.

State Engineer, New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2020.

Irrigation districts and acequias

• Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (415,896 acres mapped)
• Elephant Butte Irrigation District (190,339 acres mapped)
• 8 acequias, community-run irrigation ditches (listed under Culture)

State Engineer's irrigation districts and acequia layers.

Public water systems beside the river

Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, Rio Rancho Water & Waste Water Services Sandoval, Camino Real Regional Utility Authority, Las Cruces Municipal Water System, Lower Rio Grande Public WWA, Doña Ana MDWCA

State Engineer's public water systems layer (service areas within 2 km).