It has been 30 years or so since residents in New Mexico's largest city last saw their stretch of the Rio Grande go dry. There's a possibility it could happen again this summer. Federal water managers released their annual operating plan for the Rio Grande yesterday, and it doesn't look good. Flows have been meager so far this year because of below-average snowpack in the mountains along the Colorado-New Mexico border that feed the river. Spring precipitation has done little to fill the void. Reservoirs are at a small fraction of their capacity and continue to shrink. There is no opportunity to replenish them because the provisions of a water-sharing agreement with Texas prevent New Mexico from storing water upstream. That means the drought-stricken state has no extra water in the bank to fall back on, as it has in previous years.
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