Dry Rio Grande exposes dead fish, debris along Albuquerque riverbed

Volunteers working Wednesday along Albuquerque’s dry Rio Grande pulled a tire, a suitcase and a traffic sign from the exposed riverbed, while city Open Space Division staff joined the cleanup in a stretch that had become more mud than moving water.

Near Alameda, fisherman Cameron Quill said the scene was disturbing. He described smelling death near the river and later seeing hundreds of dead fish in a spot where he normally expected to fish, a sharp sign of how quickly the river’s condition had changed for people who use it for kayaking, swimming and fishing.

The dry stretch came earlier than last year. Bureau of Reclamation data showed the Rio Grande stopped charting measurable flow in Albuquerque on June 4, 2026, compared with around July 16 in 2025. The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority said that same day the river near the Central Avenue bridge was dry and urged residents to conserve water.

River managers have been tracking the drying through the city for days. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District said residents were already seeing sections of the Rio Grande dry through Albuquerque by June 5 and warned the dry conditions were expected to keep advancing northward. The district said the spring was on pace to become one of the most difficult on record, driven by exceptionally low runoff, limited water supplies and persistent drought.

Water deliveries have also shifted as the river has fallen. The district said limited non-Pueblo irrigation deliveries resumed June 16 in the Albuquerque Division through the Pueblo Acequia and Arenal Main Canal in the South Valley. It later said the Bureau of Indian Affairs resumed releasing stored water on June 19 to meet Prior and Paramount irrigation demands for the six Middle Rio Grande Pueblos.

The Bureau of Reclamation warned in May that low runoff, limited storage and little leased water to supplement flows could leave parts of the Rio Grande through Albuquerque, Isleta and San Acacia dry this summer. The back-to-back dry years have been rare in recent decades, and the exposed riverbed has made the consequences visible in places where water usually hides them: fish kills, trash, shifting recreation and a bigger cleanup burden for city crews and volunteers alike.