Low water in Corrales drain strands fish, raises irrigation concerns

A Corrales resident said her son tried to rescue fish stranded in the Riverside Drain, a small but visible sign of how low water has tightened its grip on the village. The drain’s shallow flow left fish unable to move downstream, turning a routine stretch of water into a warning about habitat stress, irrigation pressure and who controls the water that reaches Corrales.

The immediate problem goes beyond one rescue attempt. The Corrales Riverside Drain is a monitored USGS site, but the federal water database shows no continuous, daily or field-measurement data currently available for that location, leaving residents with little public hydrologic detail for the exact spot where fish were stranded. That lack of site-specific readings makes the scene in the drain more striking, because the visible distress is easier to see than the numbers behind it.

The broader water shortage in Corrales has already reached the irrigation system. On April 9, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District warned that declining Rio Grande levels could soon affect deliveries to Corrales, where temporary pumps lift water from the river into the Corrales Main Canal. The district said those pumps have to stop when river levels fall below operating limits, and although rainfall upstream of Cochiti Dam briefly improved flows, the outlook remained uncertain.

By late April, the district suspended irrigation deliveries to Corrales. In early May, the main canal through the village was completely dry, and farmers said the shutdown came earlier than normal. Corrales farmer Ysabela Trujillo said the shortage threatened apple trees and grapes, while other irrigators noted that some farms have backup wells or drip systems but many village users still depend entirely on the acequia.

The shutdown also exposed how fragile the system has become since the old gravity-fed siphon failed in 2022. The district has said a new siphon is under construction, should be finished before the end of 2026 and is expected to be used for the 2027 irrigation season. Until then, Corrales depends on the temporary pumping setup and on river levels that can change quickly with snowmelt, upstream rain and seasonal drought.

The village says the Corrales Interior Drain, about 2 miles long and roughly 26 acres in area, was built in the 1930s to lower groundwater, drain waterlogged soils and return irrigation water to the Rio Grande. It is now considered an important wildlife corridor, which makes low-water episodes like this one a concern not only for farmers but for wildlife watchers too. A fish stocking database shows 119 triploid rainbow trout were stocked in the Corrales Riverside Drain on Feb. 10, which may help explain why stranded fish drew immediate attention.