How Elephant Butte Irrigation District Is Preparing for a “Dry, Dry, Dry” Year
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lephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID), which services over 6,700 farm members across a service area of 90,640 acres, has stewarded the surface water of New Mexico’s portion of the Rio Grande Project (RGP) for over 100 years. Its water deliveries are complicated by several factors, including delivery obligations under the 1906 Convention Treaty with Mexico, the 1902 authorization of the RGP as a Bureau of Reclamation project, and the formulation of the 1938 Rio Grande Compact Commission—plus a drought that has lasted now for 19 years. In this interview, EBID Treasurer/Manager Gary Esslinger tells Irrigation Leader about how the district is adapting to these institutional demands and trying climatic circumstances. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about yourself and about EBID. Gary Esslinger: I grew up on a family farm in southern New Mexico, where my grandfather settled and started farming in 1912. In 1978, I began working for EBID. I have held various positions as I have climbed the ladder within the organization, and in 1987, I was appointed to the position of treasurer/manager by the board of directors. I have remained in that position for the last 33 years. Our district has 90,640 acres of irrigable land within the RGP in southcentral New Mexico, and we service over 6,700 farm members with our 300 miles of canals and 600 miles of drains. We have been blessed to serve the farmers of the Rincon and Mesilla Valleys for 100 years now, and over that time we have become an extension of their farming operations and play a role in promoting the agricultural economy of the state, which is known for its famous chiles, pecans, and onions. Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us about the history of drought in your district?
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records of droughts from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It is approaching the severity of the droughts from the 1930s, during the Dust Bowl era. Today, EBID is concentrating on what it needs to address this drought as we prepare for the uncertainty of the future. We are instituting and initiating programs based on our planning needs. New Mexico is developing a 50‑year water plan. In our district, we’ve already met many of the planning goals it lays out; however, we have to be able to do more with less and make changes to address the current needs of the farmers within EBID. Someone once said, “Affairs of the state make for grand design, but in the end the things that matter most happen on the streets where we live.” Irrigation Leader: Is EBID looking for alternative water sources to help combat this drought? Gary Esslinger: Right now, we have several alternatives in place, and we are working on issues including watershed management, storm water capture, brackish water development, and groundwater resource management. irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF EBID.
Gary Esslinger: As a farm boy growing up during the 1950s and 1960s, I helped my dad as we experienced the worst drought on record in the RGP. I began working for EBID in 1978, when the farmers were dealing with another drought; that year, they were allotted only 8 acre-inches. I was fortunate to be a part of EBID when we were blessed with 23 years of full water supply and every farm was getting 3 acre-feet per acre a year, even 4½–5 acre-feet if they could take it. There was water everywhere—millions more acrefeet than we could store with the infrastructure we had then. In 1999, I began to see that the Elephant Butte and Caballo Reservoirs were not filling up every year from snowmelt runoff as before, and by 2003, we had hardly any water in storage to deliver to the farms. It has been 18 years, and we are still reeling from this drought. It has broken the
EBID Head Ditch Rider Sergio Salinas examines a remote terminal unit.
