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# Elephant Butte Reservoir water level

Live reservoir storage and water level in Rio Grande basin, New Mexico

_Data through Aug 25, 2026 · source last checked Aug 27, 2026 · page revised Aug 27, 2026_

> Now 27,438 af, 73% below the 5-yr median, 1% of capacity.

Elephant Butte stores 27,438 af, down 63.4% from a year ago and 73% below the 5-year median. Storage stands at 1% of capacity.

## The numbers

| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Week over week | 27,438 af | 27,323 af | +0.4% |
| Month over month | 27,438 af | 28,496 af | -3.7% |
| Year over year | 27,438 af | 74,937 af | -63.4% |
| vs 5-yr median | 27,438 af | 102,077 af | -73.1% |

### Reservoir facts

| Measure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Full pool elevation | 4,407 ft above sea level (top of active conservation pool) | USBR |
| Maximum depth at the dam | 197 ft | USBR |
| Surface area at full pool | 42,750 acres | USACE NID |
| Total capacity | 2,010,900 acre-feet | USBR |

## About Elephant Butte Reservoir

Elephant Butte Dam impounds the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico, the principal storage reservoir of the Rio Grande Project. It is the largest reservoir in New Mexico, more than two million acre-feet at full pool. Reclamation dispatches its water for irrigation in the Rincon and Mesilla valleys and around El Paso, along with deliveries to Mexico under a 1906 treaty.

Total capacity is 2.01M af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 26,732 af to 570,686 af.

Elephant Butte Reservoir is one of the 20 major reservoirs this site totals each day, and one of several it tracks in the Rio Grande basin. For the combined picture, [western reservoir levels](/reservoir/tracked-total) carries the storage of all 20 on one chart, which is the number to watch when the question is about the West as a whole rather than about this project.

Those figures describe the reservoir at full pool, not today. The chart at the top of this page tracks storage in acre-feet rather than water depth, so read the current figure against total capacity for how full the reservoir is, and against the full pool elevation and maximum depth for the size of the water column behind the dam. The two do not move together one for one: a reservoir narrows as it deepens, so one holding half its capacity still stands more than half as deep.

Sources: full pool elevation and maximum depth from [the Bureau of Reclamation](https://www.usbr.gov/projects/index.php?id=94); surface area from [the Army Corps' National Inventory of Dams](https://nid.sec.usace.army.mil/#/dams/system/NM00129/summary); total capacity from the Bureau of Reclamation.

## About this data

- Source: US Bureau of Reclamation RISE; California reservoirs via CA DWR CDEC
- Series: End-of-day reservoir storage
- Geography: Elephant Butte Reservoir water level
- Unit: acre-feet
- Calculation period: Daily reading
- Last observation: Aug 25, 2026
- Update frequency: Daily

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Cite: Elephant Butte Reservoir water level is 73% below its 5-yr median for the date. The Waterline, data through Aug 25, 2026. https://the-waterline.com/reservoir/elephant-butte-reservoir
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