Santa Rosa Lake is expected to drop to perilous levels as downstream agricultural irrigators call for their water later this month, but this time they hope to leave enough behind to help keep the popular fishery alive.

"We don't want to see another environmental disaster," said Dudley Jones, manager for the Carlsbad Irrigation District, which owns the water impounded at Santa Rosa Lake.

About 10 years ago, the district found itself in hot water during similar drought conditions after its call for water left another reservoir downstream of Santa Rosa, Sumner Lake, dry.

Santa Rosa is the first of three reservoirs on the Pecos River that serve the Fort Sumner and Carlsbad Irrigation Districts, with Sumner in the middle and Brantley at the end of the line.

Jones said he will ask his board of commissioners at a meeting Tuesday to authorize leaving about 9,000 acre-feet in Santa Rosa Lake to keep the fishery alive while also providing farmers with just enough water to get by. "We all have to make sacrifices in these lean years," he said.

Santa Rosa now holds only about 21,000 acre-feet, or about 8 percent of capacity, because of little or no snowmelt runoff this year in the Pecos watershed, said Curtis McFadden of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dam at Santa Rosa Lake.

That could be drained and the lake reduced to a trickle in the streambed if the irrigation district takes its usual June allotment of 20,000 acre-feet.

In addition to proposing a limit on the irrigation district's demand, Jones also proposes that the district not take delivery of its water until July 5, so people can enjoy the lake over the Fourth of July weekend.

Despite those efforts, the fishery at Santa Rosa Lake is expected to take a big hit when the water is drawn down, and recovery could take years, said Shawn Denny, Southeast Area Fisheries Manager for the state Department of Game and Fish.

"It'll be significant," he said.

When Santa Rosa drops to low levels, many fish flow downstream to Sumner Lake along with the water delivery, thus improving fishing there. However, Sumner Lake is closed to boating after the discovery of invasive mussels that can spread to other waters via boats.

Denny noted that Sumner Lake may be one of the best shore-fishing lakes in the state, and with an expected influx of walleye, bass, catfish and crappie from Santa Rosa, it could be the hot spot for bank-based anglers.

Jones said the district is expected to leave about 7,200 of the 11,000 acre-feet it has stored in Sumner Lake for the time being. Of that, at least 2,500 acre-feet will have to remain for a minimum pool to keep alive both the fishery in the lake and an endangered fish population in the Pecos River.

Denny said there may be a positive side to the water levels dropping at Santa Rosa: The lake shoreline will be exposed, and new vegetation should sprout. If that vegetation is then submerged when the water level rises, it will create excellent habitat and nutrients for fish to thrive. Santa Rosa rebounded from similar drought conditions and low lake levels years ago to become an excellent fishery again, Denny said, and "I'd expect the same here."
In the meantime, everyone seems to be praying for rain. If past years are any indication, the state could see an early and wet monsoon season.

In many past La Niña weather seasons, which produce abnormally dry winters, the following summer monsoon seasons have produced above normal rainfall, said Daniel Porter of the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.

"Typically, that statement would be fairly accurate," he said. "But ... "

It seems that the service's weather forecasts are hedging bets and not predicting anything other than a normal monsoon season this year.

Even that would be welcome relief for farmers in the Carlsbad area, who got a tantalizing trace of rain recently, the first they've seen in more than 225 days.

McFadden says an early and wet monsoon season could add 12,000 acre-feet of water to Santa Rosa Lake, and that would alleviate a lot of its problems.

Karl F. Moffatt is a longtime New Mexico journalist and avid outdoorsman who can be contacted through his blog at www.outdoorsnewmexico.com.

IF YOU GO

Santa Rosa Lake State Park is southeast of Santa Fe on the eastern plains. From Santa Fe take Interstate 25 toward Las Vegas, N.M. Head south on either U.S. 285 at Eldorado, N.M. 3 at Villanueva or U.S. 84 at Romeroville. All three intersect with Interstate 40, which heads west to Santa Rosa.