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NEW MEXICO / SOCORRO COUNTY

Magdalena

Ran dryRestored July 3, 2013
Magdalena, New Mexico
jclarson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Population (2020)
806
Water cut
June 5, 2013
Cause
groundwater
Where
34.12°N, 107.24°W

What happened, and when

Every dated water event the register holds for Magdalena, newest first, each with the sources that document it.

  1. Restored

    Restored

    The New Mexico Environment Department lifted the boil-water advisory, stating the system had maintained sufficient water and pressure after the village returned two out-of-use wells to service.

  2. Ran dryon the card

    Ran dry: what happened

    On June 5, 2013 the water level in the village's only operating well dropped below the pump and Magdalena's roughly 900 residents lost piped water; the state issued a boil-water advisory the same day. The water table had fallen about 20 feet since January in a three-year drought, and officials later acknowledged they had not checked the well level in over a year. Potable water was trucked in from Socorro and White Sands Missile Range and handed out at the fire house for weeks.

    • New Mexico Environment Department: "Precautionary Boil Water Advisory" issued for the Village of Magdalena (June 5, 2013)
    • KUNM: New Mexico village runs out of water due to drought (June 5, 2013)
    • High Country News: Living with less water: lessons for Californians, and the rest of us, from a New Mexico village (February 26, 2014)
    • KRWG: Magdalena water use reduced by more than 50 percent after water crisis (April 7, 2015)