City, Irrigation District Partner in Groundwater Recharge Study

Las Cruces Utilities and the Elephant Butte Irrigation District are partnering in a pilot study that looks to channel the City’s allotment of irrigation water to a ponding area near Burn Lake to help recharge the Mesilla Bolson aquifer.

The 2025 Pilot Recharge Project at Burn Lake, a memorandum of understanding signed by both parties in August 2024, will channel the City’s allotment of surface water from EBID through a series of irrigation canals to Esslinger Pond, a water basin near Burn Lake.

The City is allotted approximately 1,500 acre-feet of surface water annually from EBID. An acre-foot of water is the volume of water that covers one acre of land to a depth of one foot, or approximately 326,000 gallons of water.

Charles Neligh, hydrologist for the City of Las Cruces, said he anticipates about 20-acre feet of water to flow daily through the canals toward Esslinger Pond during the 2025 EBID irrigation season.

“We do not necessarily anticipate that Esslinger Pond, or Burn Lake for that matter, will receive any noticeable amounts of water for storage,” said Neligh. “We do hope that the temporary diversion of surface water through the EBID canals, toward Esslinger Pond, will allow for seepage that ultimately recharges, or helps replenish, the Mesilla Bolson.”

The Mesilla Bolson is the aquifer located along the Rio Grande in Doña Ana County. The aquifer serves as the primary source of drinking water for Las Cruces and Doña Ana County.

Five wells, two of them operated by the City, will be monitored throughout the irrigation season to help determine if the water diversion efforts help recharge the aquifer.

EBID is set to begin releasing water May 30, 2025, from Caballo Lake with river water reaching Las Cruces sometime between June 1-3. EBID then uses a series of canals, laterals and irrigation ditches to move water to farmlands in southern New Mexico. Some of those canals will be used to move surface water toward Esslinger Pond. The EBID irrigation season is anticipated to end Aug. 20, 2025.

If the pilot recharge project proves successful, the MOU will likely to be extended into future irrigation seasons.