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My well is about 480 ft. deep about 15 miles north of Albuquerque in Rio Rancho. The quality and supply are fine. I don't irrigate or waste any water on grass, but I have a 1500-gallon goldfish pond in my courtyard that needs to be topped off due to evaporation every week. Outside the courtyards there are native plants that are drought resistant. I have rain barrels that I use for hand watering sometimes. We are having a wet year so far and it might continue with El Nino in the Pacific.
Agriculture is the biggest user of water in NM. I think there might be opportunities for more efficiency or less water-dependent crops in future years. Residential water usage is about the same as in the 1960s in spite of population growth. The oil and gas industry uses a great deal of water for fracking simply to force marginal crude to the surface. We had a multi-year drought that was the worst in 1200 years but last year's monsoon was very good, and we see rain now every few days.
The national center for desalination research is in Alamogordo, NM and El Paso has the largest inland desalination plant in the world. There are untapped brackish aquafers throughout the western states.
New Mexico's population is a little over 2 million and has remained stable at that level for a while. I would not want to see the population growth that has occurred in Arizona.
The Rio Grande or San Juan Basin are not going to simply run out of water. If you had interest in starting a pecan orchard it might be a problem, but for a house with xeric landscaping, the only thing you have to consider is the local situation. Some places don't have good well options due to local geology or lack of piped water (like the mesa on the other side of the Rio Grande from Taos). That's gonna be priced into the land though, so you just have to do a little research and stay clear of deals that are too good to be true.
We just had a pretty terrible drought and nothing really bad happened water wise. As SunGrins stated, residential use is flat, if anything were to eventually hit hard times, it'd be farmers only. The next years aren't going to be so bad with El Ninos (this year is great) and that's going to recharge up the options.
The Colorado River is in worse shape than the Rio Grande - and New Mexico is able to control its basin better. And the source of a good portion of it is giant sand basin (San Luis Valley) that soaks up any big precipitation events from climate change, so it's pretty solid geography going forward.
In 2019 I visited the Rio Grande. It was in terrible shape. Extremely low water levels, and the wildlife habitat (aqua and otherwise) was practically non-existent. This was in and around Pilar. My friend born and raised there since the late 50's was very upset to see that. I can't imagine that it has improved much in 4 years. In addition, the rivers and creeks in San Miguel and Mora Counties are severely compromised by drought and cattle running. (N.B. (Note Well): I am NOT here to debate cattle running.)
In 2019 I visited the Rio Grande. It was in terrible shape. Extremely low water levels, and the wildlife habitat (aqua and otherwise) was practically non-existent. This was in and around Pilar. My friend born and raised there since the late 50's was very upset to see that. I can't imagine that it has improved much in 4 years. In addition, the rivers and creeks in San Miguel and Mora Counties are severely compromised by drought and cattle running. (N.B. (Note Well): I am NOT here to debate cattle running.)
People are drowning on the Rio Grande rafting cause the water is so high. Every stream and river in the area is overflowing its banks right now. You can't hike any of the trails up the road to the ski valley cause the streams are impassable unless you just walk through them as it goes up to your knees and it's flowing over down the trails. It's gonna take more than a year to get back to normal but this is a good start.
I am very glad to hear that because it was really sad to see the horrible state the Rio Grande was in. Scummy low water with almost non-existent marine life or birds nearby. I'd sure like to be up in the mountains right now near some of my favorite spots near Sipapu, etc. Perhaps the wildlife has started bouncing back by now, after the fires.
I am very glad to hear that because it was really sad to see the horrible state the Rio Grande was in. Scummy low water with almost non-existent marine life or birds nearby. I'd sure like to be up in the mountains right now near some of my favorite spots near Sipapu, etc. Perhaps the wildlife has started bouncing back by now, after the fires.
Yeah! It's cool to see it spring up. It's interesting though, the mountains and wetter areas are just lush, while the sagebrush / pinon areas aren't really blooming much. Maybe they'll pop later, but I wonder if there's just not the seeds / plants available to capitalize on the moisture.
As Will Rogers once said, the Rio Grande was "the only river I know of that is in need of irrigating." It has good years and bad years, and seasonal fluctuations.
In the Albuquerque area, the average flow today should be around 1,500 cubic ft./sec., but it's running at around 4,600 cubic ft./sec., so 3x the average amount of water, heading for Elephant Butte, and impressive to see and hear it swirling by from the banks. It's all because of excellent snowpack.
I currently live in Texas but two years ago I bought a house near Las Vegas (NM). I spent as much time as I could there and the long term plan was to move there permanently. Then the Hermit Peak fire happened and it destroyed my house. Not just that fire but in general reading about the many other fires in the southwest, the massive drought, the drying of lakes, etc., I have been wondering if I should try to rebuild in NM (which I loved before the fire charred my house and my soul) or find somewhere else to live that doesn’t have a water problem (maybe Appalachia). The governments of the southwest seem to be stuck whistling past the graveyard regarding the megadrought. What say you?
I'm sorry you lost your house, that fire was really bad, 3 big fires that converged and destroyed a lot of property. However, it was not and has not been a "megadrought". It is high desert and we have forest fires.
Last year was the worst in decades. There are things people could do in the area where the Hermit peak fire happened around their houses to keep it safer from fires, but that one was 3 different fires that converged.
I really think you would be happier in applachia or Pennsylvania or Deleware or some where that isn't desert. The average rainfall in New Mexico is 9 to 11 inches a year. Some years we reach that by April, most we don't.
The farmers used to be dependent on the snow fall from colorado to fill the rio grande, but now someone sold water rights from that river to El Paso and the state pays the farmers to leave their fields fallow if they don't have a well to water the crops.
The mention of mega drought by Igorcarajo reminded me of an incident in the 90's when I used to go to Bernalillo for a women's sweat lodge. The woman who ran it was living with Joseph Rael. He had a very cool kiva like structure on the property. Anyway, only 2 of us were from the area, even the woman leading the sweat was from the midwest. Part of it is asking prayers and the woman and I who were from the area were close to last in the circle. We kept hearing prayers for the end to the drought, I thought they were talking about some drought somewhere like California or something. But eventually I realized they thought we were in drought. It was April and we had already had 11 inches of rain, no snow but lots of rain. So my prayer was for all of us to be in balance with the environment we found ourselves in. Afterwards while we were eating our feast I lectured the group on how New Mexico is desert, there is no drought and we had already had more than our average rainfall. I quit going because it was always like that, too many wanna bes from the midwest who moved to New Mexico to get more spiritual.
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