Elephant Butte Falls Below 30,000 af, 77% Below the 5-Year Median

Elephant Butte storage dropped to 29,804 af this week, down 25% on the week and 77% below its 5-year median, per the US Bureau of Reclamation. No other site in the digest sits further below its 5-year median. The reservoir, a primary storage buffer for Rio Grande irrigation deliveries in southern New Mexico, is now below 30,000 af mid-irrigation season.

• Dolores River (Colorado basin): 157 cfs, up 3,117% week over week, 63% above the 5-yr median (USGS).
• Bear River (Great Basin): 306 cfs, up 108% on the week, 166% above the 5-yr median (USGS).
• Blue Mesa Reservoir: 244,556 af, down 4% on the week, 54% below the 5-yr median (Bureau of Reclamation). Drawdown continues well below normal for this period.
• Colorado drought: 91% of the state in D1-or-worse drought, 50 pts above the 5-yr median, unchanged week over week (US Drought Monitor).
• San Joaquin Valley counties: Fresno, Kern and Kings counties each read 0% drought coverage, running 38 to 99 pts below their respective 5-yr medians (US Drought Monitor). No week-over-week change.

Allocations (standing status): CVP north-of-Delta irrigation, M&I and American River M&I (Folsom) allocations remain at 100%, per the Bureau of Reclamation announcement of Feb. 26. SWP statewide allocation stands at 45%, per the Department of Water Resources announcement of May 1. Neither changed this week.

Data note: Two CVP data series have not updated in over two weeks. Operational figures from those series should be treated as stale until the Bureau of Reclamation refreshes them.