What is most of the water in the Rio Grande used for?
Diversions for municipal and agricultural use already claim some 95 percent of the Rio Grande's average annual flow, and Elephant Butte's gates now only open during a short irrigation season.
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Several major drainages feed into the Rio Grande. Predominant surface water features that feed into the Rio Grande above the Otowi gage, in the Upper Rio Grande are the Red River, Rio Hondo, Pueblo de Taos, Santa Barbara, Embudo Creek, and the Rio Chama.
Use of a personal flotation device is required for everyone in the boat. Swimming in the Rio Grande is highly discouraged. The presence of sunken debris poses a risk of injuries and being caught and dragged under the water by the current.
The Rio Grande River in the United States, known as the Río Bravo (or, more formally, the Río Bravo del Norte) in Mexico, is a river, 1,885 miles (3,034 km) long, and the fourth longest river system in the United States.
Thirty-five million years ago, the formation of the Rio Grande began, jumpstarting a region that would become home to millions of people. The past hundred years of land changing hands, water management and infrastructure development have created the Rio Grande we know today.
Legal disputes for that water began in 2013 when Texas argued that New Mexico violated the 1938 Rio Grande Compact by pumping groundwater and diverting south of Elephant Butte. Texas claimed New Mexico was essentially taking water that legally belonged to Texas.