Rio Grande rechanneling project aims to deliver more water to Elephant Butte
SOCORRO COUNTY, New Mexico (KVIA) -- $180 million in funding from the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Deal will soon be used for water projects in New Mexico, including rechanneling part of the Rio Grande.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says this could help farmers in the Mesilla Valley by delivering more water to Elephant Butte Reservoir.
A section of the Rio Grande near San Marcial, NM, known as the Lower San Acacia Reach, currently sits higher than the valley floor it runs through.
This area is just above the former northern tip of Elephant Butte Reservoir.
“There’s a lot of sediment that comes down the river, and over time, as we’ve confined the river to this narrow corridor on the east side, that sediment has built up, and now the river sits higher than the valley floor, so it needs to be realigned, said Ashlee Rudolph, manager of the project.
She says the last time the river was rechanneled in this area was in the 1950s.
“The project is going to contribute to moving the water we have more efficiently, and I think that’s going to be the biggest benefit from it," she added.
Elephant Butte Reservoir currently sits at 8.7% capacity, around 173,000 acre feet of water, and reached a high of around 20% during the summer.
Rudolph says preliminary studies of the project show tens of thousands more acre feet of water would reach the lake after rechanneling.
“Ten thousand acre feet, or more, could really mean a lot to those downstream communities," she said.
The amount of water projected to flow from the rechanneling, however, isn't expected to bring the lake’s water levels back to its glory days of the 1990s, when the lake was near or at capacity.
“This does not necessarily mean Elephant Butte will be full, as we’re still under drought conditions," said Rudolph.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says this project is expected to start at the beginning of 2026.
A second phase of the project in the Upper San Acacia Reach, which is located on the Rio Grande between Albuquerque and Socorro, is also in the works.
