DELICATE WATER ZONE · D2 — Severe drought over a member dam
El Paso, Texas
El Paso's river water is Rio Grande Project water, released from Elephant Butte and Caballo and split with New Mexico's farmers under a 1906 treaty share with Mexico. When the project runs short — and this year the reservoirs above it read in the single digits — the city leans on its wells and its desalination plant.
What this desk cannot see: The Hueco and Mesilla bolsons, the aquifers that carry the city through project shortages, publish no open real-time index; El Paso Water's Kay Bailey Hutchison desal plant likewise reports no live gauge this desk can read.
The reservoirs this zone drinks from
| Reservoir | % full | Storage | Elevation | 30-day trend | Drought at the dam |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elephant Butte Reservoir NM | 1.4% | 27,506 af | 4,275.5 ft | +24.3 af/day | D2 — Severe drought |
| Caballo Reservoir NM | 4.1% | 14,021 af | 4,133.8 ft | -19.4 af/day | D2 — Severe drought |
af = acre-feet; a dash means the measure is not published for that reservoir. Each name links to the reservoir's full page — gauge, record, snowpack and sources.
Upstream watch
Pools that feed this zone's members without serving the city directly.
- Heron Reservoir — 8.1% full
- El Vado Lake — 9.5% full
- Abiquiu Reservoir — — full
Zone prose is curated by this desk with its sourcing inline; the numbers are the member reservoirs' own operators', on the bases named on each reservoir's page. Back to the national desk.