U.S. Water News Online
LAS VEGAS, N.M. -- Outdoor watering is prohibited under new water restrictions for the 18,000 customers of the Las Vegas, N.M. water system. The city moved from a Stage I to a Stage III water emergency because it no longer can rely on water supplies from a nearby lake. City Manager Morris Madrid announced the water restrictions.
Storrie Lake helps supplement the city's two reservoirs in Gallinas Canyon, which is on the east slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. However, the lake's water level has dropped to a point near the access pipe through which the city draws its share of water.
The city annually leases 500 acre-feet of water from the Storrie Lake Water Users Association, whose members also have been drawing from the lake. Recently, the popular fishing and boating lake north of Las Vegas stood 46 feet below normal.
The Gallinas Creek, which refills both the reservoirs and the lake, received very little runoff from snow melt and summer rain. The stream was producing between 900,000 and 1.2 million gallons of water a day, according to Las Vegas utilities administrator Richard R. Trujillo. However, Las Vegas water users have been drawing out an average of about 2.3 million gallons a day. Trujillo expects water use to drop to 1.8 million gallons once the new restrictions are in place.
While the city has received a few soaking rains in the last couple of weeks, little rain has fallen in the Gallinas Watershed.
The restrictions also mean hotels will be asked to change linens in rooms only when guests check out, car washes can operate only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays and coin-operated laundries must choose two days a week to close.
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