Monsoon rains delay Hatch green chile harvest for some farmers

The monsoon rains are causing arroyos to overflow near Hatch, New Mexico, and that is causing problems for some chile farmers. The ground is so wet in some fields farmers have not been able to harvest their crops.

There is also a lot of water moving through Leasburg canals and the nearby Rio Grande.

Gary Esslinger is the Elephant Butte Irrigation District director.

“Because everything is wet now, even another 2 or 3 inches could put a lot of water in the river very quickly. And with the river channel in the condition that it is now, we would get some flooding,” Esslinger said.

About 2 inches of recent rain water hit the Placitas arroyo that runs straight down into Hatch. That is the same arroyo that flooded back in 2006. After the recent storms, water has again crested the banks and run over a roadway leaving debris behind.

It is bad timing for those who make their living growing Hatch’s famous green chile.

Sergio Graheda’s family has been growing the crop for decades.

“The chile can get just so much water. If it has too much water and so much heat heating it, the whole plant, chile plant, will just start burning from the bottom up,” Graheda said.

While the rain is delaying the chile harvest, Graheda said so far, the crops have not been damaged.

And it is not just Hatch being affected by the monsoon rains.

“The river should be able to handle this much water easily, but it has so much sediment built up into it. It will probably overbank down there in the Canutillo area,” Esslinger said.

State hydrologist Phil King believes the International Boundary Water Commission is not doing enough to maintain the river.

“Back in the ’80s when we had plenty of water in Elephant Butte, we could flush this sediment through the system. If we get 2 and 1/2 half inches on the Franklin mountains, we are going to have a problem,” King said.