Posted on 10/21/2026 4:34:16 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The waterway’s decline poses an existential threat to Elephant Butte, N.M., and surrounding farms. ‘This place is going to turn into a ghost town.’
ELEPHANT BUTTE, N.M.—Three decades ago, a rare event drew hundreds of people from miles away to the Elephant Butte reservoir, this state’s largest lake.
The reservoir, which supplied drinking water to thousands and nourished vast acres of farmland, had swelled from the Rio Grande and begun to overflow. Jim Paxon remembers the roar as water cascaded down the dam’s spillway, tossing mist into the air and churning the ground below.
Those days are long gone. One morning last month, Paxon, now a 79-year-old county commissioner, pointed to where the diminished reservoir lapped at the base of the 301-foot dam.
“The lowest I’ve seen in decades,” Paxon said.
Spanning about 1,900 miles and sustaining farms, towns and wildlife, the Rio Grande is the lifeblood of much of the Southwest—and it is running dry, in what experts describe as one of America’s most severe water crises. This has depleted reservoirs at Elephant Butte and elsewhere in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, imperiling the many communities that depend on the river for drinking water and irrigation.
The Rio Grande has been sapped by more than two decades of drought and a century of heavy water use. Researchers estimate the river has lost roughly 85% of its natural flow, and some experts say it is more endangered than the Colorado River.
That depletion has accelerated in recent years. Snowpack in the Upper Rio Grande basin, which helps replenish the river, fell to near-record lows last winter, and in July Elephant Butte reservoir dwindled to...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Is it Climate Change?
Or is it over use of water from the river for irrigation and for cities like Albuquerque?
If they are worried about disappearing elephant butts they should go to the ghetto where they see lots of them.
Speaking of droughts, I got to see the bathtub ring at Hoover Dam on my trip to Vegas. Impressive and discouraging at the same time.
Reason number 5,284 for a Big Beautiful Wall!
Cyclical.
Maybe the Super El Niño will change things.
Probably moved someplace else the snow I mean
Shut down the Colorado and New Mexico ski resorts, and see if the water level rises.
A few data centers should fix it.
The climate has been “changing” since the last ice age. That is the settled science part that is true.
The BS liberal part is that man has anything to do with that.
They’re sucking the Ogalla aquifer thanks to Texas stupid right—of-capture laws.
I lived in las Cruces NM for years, and I can tell you it is not climate change, it is severe over use of this water resource. Building is out of control especially in the Albuquerque area. The only answer is to stop or limite building. What I have seen, however, would make this option to late.
Naughty but nice joke.
Actually, there is a climate change tie-in. In an Elmore Leonard book two black guys are musing over “How come so many black women’s got them big asses? So many high asses.”
“It’s because in Africa there have been many droughts off and on for thousands of years. Asses are natural places for fat to gather and be stored and fat contains a lot of water. During the droughts the women with enough water there survived to have more children and nurse them while the others dropped out of the gene pool.”
Last I heard, (but haven't really been paying close attention), Elephant Butte has recovered a very significant amount of the normal volume.
And remember, prior to the construction of the dam 110 years ago, there was no lake there, nothing much to slow down the water on its way to be wasted in the Gulf of Mexico / Gulf of America.
Driven by it many times. Middle of nowhere. Moonscape. Bat shit crazy inhabitants. Just keep driving.
This may be a strange question to the forum, but has it ever been possible to enhance the amount of water flowing from the headwaters or source of a river system? Does an artesian water layer well produce enough naturally flowing water from it to impact a diminished river like this? If such a source could be found, tapped, and directed to flow into the river?
Most of the water that is in the Rio Grande river comes from snow melt in the San Juan mountains in Colorado, and a little more snow melt and the occasional rain in the Northern NM mountains.
I can’t imagine that any aquifers add significant amount to the river flow, although some are occasionally replenished by it.
Or maybe I’m completely misunderstanding your question.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.