Elephant Butte Reservoir water reportedly at 4% as lawmakers discuss Rio Grande settlement

Elephant Butte Irrigation District manager and treasurer Josh Smith painted a "brief, bleak" picture to legislators at a Tuesday meeting.

The reservoir on the Rio Grande in Southern New Mexico is at less than 4% of its capacity. Typically, the irrigation district distributes a little over 3 acre-feet of water to irrigators, Smith said during a meeting of the Water and Natural Resources Committee in Las Cruces. This year, the allotment was measured in acre-inches.

"So we are dry," Smith said.

Smith was among a handful of panelists who spoke about current and future ways to conserve water in the Lower Rio Grande. For Smith, it's about increasing efficiency — 45% of the water diverted to the irrigation system is lost to seepage and other conveyance issues.

But all the speakers stressed th