Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Plan

• Water withdrawal is water diverted or removed from a surface or groundwater source for
use.
• Administrative water supply is based on the amount of water withdrawals in 2010 as
outlined in the New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2010 report.
• Water demand is the amount of water needed at a specified time.
6.1 Present Uses
The most recent assessment of water use in the region was compiled by NMOSE for 2010, as
discussed in Section 5.5. The New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2010 report (Longworth et
al., 2013) provides information on total withdrawals for nine categories of water use:
• Public water supply
• Domestic (self-supplied)
• Irrigated agriculture
• Livestock (self-supplied)
• Commercial (self-supplied)
• Industrial (self-supplied)
• Mining (self-supplied)
• Power (self-supplied)
• Reservoir evaporation.
The total surface water and groundwater withdrawals for each category of use, for each county,
and for the entire region, are shown on Table 6-1 and Figures 6-1a through 6-1f. The
predominant water use in 2010 in the Middle Rio Grande region was for irrigated agriculture,
followed by public water supply use.
Most of the groundwater use in the Middle Rio Grande region in 2010 was for public water
supply. Groundwater also supplied self-supplied commercial, domestic, industrial, livestock,
mining, and power uses. Groundwater points of diversion are shown in Figure 6-2.
The categories included in the New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2010 report and shown on
Figure 6-1 and Table 6-1 represent the total withdrawals in the planning region. Tribes and
Pueblos in New Mexico are not required to provide water use data to the State; therefore, tribal
water use data are not necessarily reflected in this plan. There are also some unquantified
additional categories of water use, including riparian evapotranspiration and instream flow.
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