Dear Mr. Know-It-All:
Thanks for the recent column on irrigation ditches in the area, but you didn’t mention whether they will be impacted by low snowpack/drought. So, are they still going strong?
Signed,
Dusty Don
Dear Don,
Strong is, well, a strong word, so I would just say, so far so good for the irrigation ditches in San Juan County, especially the ones that rely on the Animas River. However, water managers are keeping a close eye on supplies and even the good ol’ weather forecast. What’s coming may not bode well for a normal irrigation season this year, but you can’t predict what Mother Nature will do.
The Utton Transboundary Resources Center at the University of New Mexico shares information with the public about water, natural resources, and environmental issues. One of their reports about irrigation ditches, also known as acequias in older parts of New Mexico, and how governing bodies deal with water shortages, their research brings up the topic of shortage sharing, “The main characteristic of these agreements is that during drought conditions, the way water is distributed shifts to prioritize that all users keep access to at least some water. This characteristic contrasts with the doctrine of prior appropriation, which allocates water by the chronological order in which the water was put to beneficial use.”
When water is scarce, the state can step in to order shortage sharing rules. Mr. Know-It-All reached out to the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer to ask about this year’s dry-as-a-bone weather. Public Information Officer Maggie Fitzgerald said “In the San Juan County area, Animas River Shortage Sharing is triggered when flows of the Animas River go down to below 200 cfs at the state line. The river currently has sufficient flow that shortage sharing is not required, but that may change in late June or July, depending on the monsoons.”
A check on the Animas River flow at Cedar Hill, New Mexico, shows the water was flowing near 1,000 cfs in April, when ditch/irrigation season usually begins, dropping to between 370-430 cfs in May before increasing to its current flow of between 750-900 cfs this month. To be clear, these flows are still extremely low for this time of year.
Just last summer, in August 2025, shortage sharing was required. The users worked together to come up with a voluntary plan to share water from the diminished Animas River. Sixteen users, including ditches and the municipalities of Farmington and Aztec, formed four groups with a cascading schedule: using water for nine days, then closing the ditches or river pumps for three days. At that time, San Juan Basin Watermaster Miles Juett wrote that the Office of the State Engineer would provide guidance to determine when to start, pause, and call off the rotation.
While I have been writing a lot about irrigation water and ditches, unless you have a well on your property, you’re probably using water taken from one of the rivers in the area that could be the subject of shortage sharing. Water flows in the Animas may look very different in as little as 30-days from now, so pay attention to changing forecasts and conditions.
So what’s the best way to use what little water we may have this summer? Mr. Know-It-All asked Bonnie Hopkins, County Program Director and Adult Agriculture Agent with the NMSU San Juan County Extension Office. She says when you do have water, do deep watering of crops, lawn, or garden to really saturate the soil, “I recommend using your fingers as a soil moisture meter and feeling down to the root zone of your crops to see if the soil is dry below the surface, and not relying on the appearance of the surface to determine if your crops need water,” she said. She also recommends cutting back on the amount of time you water your lawn by 25%, which can work out to 2-5 minutes less on your schedule.
Mr. Know-It-All is Scott Michlin, the general manager of KSJE 90.9FM community-supported radio at San Juan College. When he’s not answering questions here or on the radio, you might find him teaching public speaking or mass media classes at San Juan College, or serving on the board of directors for San Juan United Way, Presbyterian Medical Services, or the San Juan Symphony.
If you have a question about something in San Juan County, drop him a line at SMichlin@tricityrecordnm.com. If he doesn’t know the answer, he knows someone who does, and you’ll read about it here in the pages of the Tri-City Record!
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