Disappearing Rio Grande

When Texas goes to court against New Mexico about water from the Rio Grande, the battle is about places such as Keith Deputy’s backyard.

He grew up on his grandfather’s 200 acres north of El Paso. It was a small operation that his grandfather had kept going through the Great Depression by taking a job with a utility company.

Deputy now grows pecans, alfalfa, cotton, corn and winter forage for the dairies on 2,200 acres under the umbrella of Deputy Farms. It is now one of the largest operations in the valley north of El Paso.

Deputy attributes his success to learning how to farm by growing up working the land, and a gradual expansion that coincided well with the ever growing size and expense of tractors and combines.

But besides knowing how to grow crops and make timely investments in equipment, Deputy is a master of navigating water politics. 

He has no choice.

Much of his land straddles the Texas/New Mexico state line as it zigzags along the old riverbed of the Rio Grande. Each side has its own set of rules and regulations governing the use of surface and groundwater. Neither approves of what the other is doing. 

“I figured it would be better if I stayed in the middle,” Deputy said about staying neutral with the interests of either state.

The part of Deputy’s backyard in Texas is not in a groundwater district, so Deputy can pump as much water as he can use out of his wells there. But in New Mexico, every well has to be registered and metered and comply with state-imposed limits.

The result is that all along the Texas side of the state line there are wells. Even the city of El Paso has some of its largest well fields butting up against the state line.

Groundwater follows the laws of physics, not political boundaries. As the pumps pull water from the aquifer, they are sucking it directly out from under New Mexico.

New Mexico can’t do much about it. What it can do is make sure Texas gets no more than it is entitled to from the Rio Grande. Sometimes this means that spare river water in New Mexico will be given to Deputy to prevent it from flowing into Texas.

Further, the farmers in Texas generally rely more on surface water because their aquifers are saltier than the upstream farmers in New Mexico. This is a benefit for New Mexico because every time Texas orders water out of Elephant Butte Dam, which is almost 100 miles upstream of the state line in New Mexico, some of it seeps into the ground  and becomes available for wells in New Mexico. 

Texas does not like having its water go to New Mexico and is now suing to arguing groundwater pumping in New Mexico is harming surface water delivery to Texas.

This is terrifying for Deputy.  If Texas wins, which Deputy thinks it will, one of the outcomes could be shutting down wells in New Mexico.

If that happens, farms will have to shut down.

Until that ruling, it is in farmers' interest on both sides of the state line to keep using as much water as they are legally allowed. Prices are good and if you know how to grow crops, there is money to be made. 

“If you don’t use it, who says the state is not going to come along and say ‘you aren’t using it so you don’t need it,’” Deputy said of his water rights. “We are going to have to back off some. The question is when is that decision going to be made.”

Until it is, Deputy is going to do his best to stay out of trouble with both sides and keep his farms running.  

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