NMCentennialBlueBook

STATE ENGINEER’S OFFICE - 1913
“The following italicized text was taken from the 1913 NM Blue Book, the next edition after New
Mexico became a state in 1912.”
Irrigation
During the year ending October 31, 1912, there were filed in this office 185 applications for the use
and diversion of the public waters or the streams in New Mexico. These applications are intended
for use over an area of 595,000 acres. A total of 692 applications have been filed in this office since
its establishment and involve the future irrigation of approximately 4,000,000 acres.
No records of the area irrigated prior to 1907, when this office was established, are available.
There are probably 899,000 acres of land in the state at present that are being irrigated. The power
possibilities from estimates made in this office approximate 500,000 horsepower on the various
streams. Very little development has been done in this line, there being but seventeen applications
in this office for power purposes.
The larger private irrigation projects being developed and under construction at this time and in
part in working order, involve 240,000 acres of land. Numerous small projects are being constructed
throughout the State.
United States Projects
The United States Reclamation Service on the Elephant Butte project proposes to irrigate 110,000
acres of land in the State of New Mexico. At present under one unit of the project in the government
is furnishing water to 20,000 acres annually. The main feature of this project is the Elephant Butte
dam which is now under construction and 5 per cent completed. This dam should be storing water
in the reservoir by the spring of 1915, and probably some time during that year completed. It is the
greatest irrigation project in the United States and involved an expenditure of $10,000,000.
At Carlsbad, New Mexico, on the Pecos River the U.S. eclamation Service has between 18,000 and
20,000 acres of land under irrigation with several thousand additional available. On the Hondo, a
tributary of the Pecos, 10,000 acres are available for cultivation with a probable 20,000 acres in
the
Stream Gauging
By the appropriation of $15,000.00 by the last legislature for stream measurement, this branch of
the office has been placed in a position to determine the stream flow and water resources of the state.
This work is in co-operation with the U.S. Geological Survey, using their methods and system for
these determinations. This appropriation has placed the possibility for scientific work in this line
on an equal with the larger and richer states of the west.
Pumping Projects
Pumping by wells from the underground waters is developing very rapidly in a number of the valleys.
In the Mimbres Valley there is a possibility of 100,000 acres being brought into cultivation by this
method. In the Portales Valley it has been estimated 150,000 acres are available. In the Estancia
Valley there may be a possibility of 125,000 acres being made available. In the Alamogordo and
Albuquerque valleys, amounting to 175,000 acres that can be easily pumped, gives a future prospect
of some 550,000 acres of land that can be put into a high state of cultivation . In the Roswell district
56,000 acres are in cultivation by artesian wells.
Carey Act Projects
Two projects are seriously under consideration, taking advantage of the Carey Act law for the
development of some 70,000 acres of land. One, the Fort Sumner projects has had considerable
investigation and study made and no doubt within a year’s time sufficient data will be obtained to
pronounce upon its feasibility. The Lake Charette is also likely to be undertaken for construction
during the coming year. This project contemplates the irrigation of 16,000 acres.
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