EBID asks police to be on alert for water theft

Law enforcement officials were asked recently to be on the lookout for theft of irrigation water, after a two-year drought has intensified demand for the resource. Elephant Butte Irrigation District, which delivers Rio Grande water to farmers throughout Doña Ana County, sent a letter in July to Las Cruces Police Chief Richard Williams and Doña Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison, asking their agencies to be on the lookout for people stealing water. EBID Manager Gary Esslinger said people often think, wrongly, that water flowing in through canals across the county is "there for public use." "But it isn't," he said. "It's there for EBID members only. If you own a yard next to a ditch, you don't have a right to that." Esslinger said the theft of water has been more problematic this year and last year that it once was, especially along privately owned ditches that connect to the irrigation district's network of canals. While EBID can shut off illegal diversions of water that stem directly from its own system, it can't do anything about water that's stolen by property owners along a private ditchbank that connects to an EBID canal, he said. But in cases involving private ditches, law enforcement can get involved, irrigation officials said. Farmers said theft is noticeable, because water pressure will drop unexpectedly during a scheduled delivery...more