Water in the desert

Those who visit this blog might wonder about a particular obsession that makes itself rapidly evident within these pages. It becomes quite obvious that I pay a great attention to the water levels on the lakes where we, as members of the Rio Grande and New Mexico sailing clubs, sail.

Once when visiting Marina del Rey in southern California, for a sailing charter, I could joke,
"Gee, I was worried when they started taking a couple of feet of water out of this big lake. But, several hours later, they started putting it all right back. Some impressive engineering for a lake that's several thousand miles wide!"

In New Mexico, we can't count on the water being put right back. In August of 2003, we had to close the marina at Heron Lake when most of the water was drained from the lake. (Long story involving water law, growing populations, environmental law, a minnow, panicky city fathers, and lots of politics!) For two years, the marina remained closed, and the New Mexico Sailing Club lost more than a third of its members. Many other members sold their sailboats, especially the larger keelboats.

In 2005, after partially repairing the marina, which had been damaged by the grounding, and finding a new insurance carrier, we finally re-opened the marina. Even after the long absence, we couldn't fill the marina with boats; many people seemed to have a hard time believing that the water was really back up to an enjoyable level. And, the lake was still low enough so that we couldn't rig a gangway from the loading zone; we had to cut a crude path that was too steep and treacherous, especially at night or in the rain, for our older or less agile members.

At the time, I was the club's vice commodore and informing people about water levels -- and what we could do in response to them -- became one of my projects.

Because we migrate our boats from summertime fun at cool, mountain-girt Heron Lake to winter sailing further south at Elephant Butte Lake, and because we've also sailed at Cochiti and Navajo lakes and know the inter-dependency of water and people, we have an interest in the overall health of all of our lakes... especially the sailable ones.



Lake conditions as of Friday morning, January 12, 2007:

Heron Lake, northern New Mexico, 10 a.m. Jan. 12, '07
7,139.55 elev., 178,550 a.f.
down 1.3 inches and 405 a.f. in 24 hours
down 3.7 inches and 1,140 a.f. in 71 hours
Contractors have removed about 38,500 a.f. of their 96,200 a.f. allotment.
At its low point around mid-April, the cove floor will probably be exposed and about a foot above the lake level.

Elephant Butte Lake, southern New Mexico, noon Friday, January 12, '07
4,342.00 feet elevation above benchmark, 528,367 acre feet
up 0.7 inches and 799 acre feet in 24 hours
up 3.6 inches and 3,989 a.f. in 71 hours
up 1.28 feet in January so far, 4.02 feet in December, 5.28 feet in November
2.12 feet higher than March 5, '06 high point
33.5 feet higher than July 28, '06 low point

Long Point Island will very soon be cut off from the mainland.

Midnight, December 31st, 2006 (2400):

Elephant Butte Lake
4,340.72 feet above benchmark, 514,050 acre feet

Heron Lake
7,140.78 feet, 183,110 acre feet


Elephant Butte Lake Elev. (feet) . . . . Storage (acre feet) . . . Date
4,343.98 . . . . . . . 557,894 . . . . . . . Jan. 31, '07 (1200)
4,342.30 . . . . . . . 535,073 . . . . . . . Jan. 15, '07 (0800)
4,342.00 . . . . . . . 531,031 . . . . . . . Jan. 12, '07 (1200)
4,341.80 . . . . . . . 528,367 . . . . . . . Jan. 10, '07 (0800)
4,341.24 . . . . . . . 520,921 . . . . . . . Jan. 5, '07 (1100)
4,340.72 . . . . . . . 514,050 . . . . . . . Dec. 31, '06 (2400)
4,340.54 . . . . . . . 511,683 . . . . . . . Dec. 30 (0800)
4,336.52 . . . . . . . 460,330 . . . . . . . Nov. 30
4,331.24 . . . . . . . 397,510 . . . . . . . Oct. 31
4,327.10 . . . . . . . 351,800 . . . . . . . Sept. 30
4,325.18 . . . . . . . 331,550 . . . . . . . Aug. 31
4,309.20 . . . . . . . 188,970 . . . . . . . July 31
4,308.50 . . . . . . . 183,870 . . . . . . . July 28 low point
4,312.98 . . . . . . . 217,970 . . . . . . . June 30
4,339.88 . . . . . . . 503,030 . . . . . . . March 5 high point
4,334.06 . . . . . . . 430,410 . . . . . . . January 1, 2006