Rio Grande faces early drought conditions

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Honestly, I've been working on this river for over 20 years and I've never seen a year like this.

[00:00:05]Um and I think you'd have to trace records back.

[00:00:08]He's talking about the historically dry year we are seeing for the Rio Grande.

[00:00:12]And officials with our our Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District say they usually don't even start to talk about the drought this early in the year. And the water manager says it's so bad the water they do have isn't even reaching Elephant Butte. All right, Medina is joining us live now from the Rio Grande tonight. So, we just reported on that fire that's burning in the Bosque which we believe is close to where you are right now. So, before we get to your story, just want to ask you, are you seeing anything there? Are you smelling any smoke?

[00:00:42]Well, Zach as of right now, we haven't seen any smoke, no flames.

[00:00:46]Um you know, you can't really smell anything. We're not seeing anything into the distance. We did hear some sirens earlier, just a couple um I want to say about 15 minutes ago we heard sirens going off. Um kind of getting closer to us, but as of right now, we haven't seen anything. I will say there is one concern aside from this fire and it that is this river over here. It is As you can see, it's just a trickle of water and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District says this river is the driest they've seen it in decades.

[00:01:14]And despite their concerns, they have high hopes this year's monsoon season will make a difference later this year.

[00:01:21]It's sad, as I was saying before. It's very sad. We just We're not getting the rainfall. We're not getting the snow melt. We're not getting the snows in the winter. The Rio Grande used to be where Gretchen Newman says she would spend most of her time in the spring. We used to canoe it every year two or three times and just didn't get to it this year.

[00:01:38]And I don't know that you can do it now.

[00:01:40]It might be canoeable, but you'd be walking it a bit. And that's because the Rio Grande is running dry.

[00:01:44]>> Um unfortunately, what's going on in the Rio Grande is not something we even typically begin talking about till maybe end of June into the middle of July. We didn't have a spring run off.

[00:01:55]Uh typically spring run off would normally be continuing to go on, maybe even reaching its peak. CEO of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, Jason Casuga, says they only have enough water to meet the needs of the six Middle Rio Grande Pueblos.

[00:02:08]>> Um, you know, agriculture uh, has been a huge part of our community in New Mexico, whether it's on the Rio Grande or in other basins. And so, um, first and foremost, our ag community is going to suffer. Casuga says in years past, they've been able to store water, but with the little snowfall and rain this year, there was nothing to store. But Casuga says soon you'll see water flowing down the Rio Grande, but that flow comes from the federal government for one specific reason. The Rio Grande is home to some endangered species. Uh, one of those being the Rio Grande silvery minnow. And so, the federal government was taking an action to be able to, um, I think maximize the opportunity for there to be a minnow spawn, and then collect minnow eggs. And, um, but that is a was a short-term action with a very small pot of water.

[00:02:54]Uh, that is going to come into the system and move its way very quickly before the drying starts.

[00:03:03]Now, the drought isn't limited to the Rio Grande. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order yesterday. She's asking the state to implement a ban on fireworks and implement water conservation measures.

[00:03:15]She says that's because of the severe fires and dry conditions. Reporting from the Rio Grande, Eleka Medina, KOAT 4.

[00:03:21]Eleka Medina,