Drought-affected New Mexico town pays attention to economic growth from Virgin Galactic space launch Reuters

(Fixed a typo in the last paragraph)

Nathan Flandino

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (Reuters)-As the first manned rocket plane prepares to take off, a sleepy desert town near the US Spaceport in New Mexico hopes to take off from tourism.

The oddly-named truth or aftermath town 30 miles from the launch pad depends on its hot springs, healing water, and the nearby Xiangshan Reservoir.

However, the tourism industry evaporated due to drought, causing the water level of the reservoir to drop to the lowest level in history. The residents of TorC, as they say, are seeking relief from the sky.

“This is truly groundbreaking and opens up heaven for the entire world,” said town manager Bruce Swinger, who is organizing the launch of Richard Branson’s space tourism flight for Virgin Galactic Holdings on Sunday A viewing party.

He added that the town never expected that revenue from activities around the US spaceport would account for the “largest share”, but would steadily grow along with launch facilities.

Ten years ago, when Val Wilkes and her partner Cydney bought a motel, she named it Rocket Inn.

“I have always been a fan of science fiction, and I like to live on the corner where science fiction is becoming scientific fact,” she said.

She said that with the relaxation of pandemic containment measures, motel bookings have increased and will continue to increase throughout the town. She added that Las Cruces, located about 80 miles south of New Mexico, has direct access to the US spaceport and has little impact. “If people want to come to our town, they will come.”

The one thing that did not rise is the reservoir, which was originally built for agriculture but has become the main attraction for the town’s 5,800 people to travel. Leisure activities include boating, fishing and camping.

The Elephant Butte Reservoir was built between 1911 and 1916 and used to be 44 miles (70.81 kilometers) long and 11 miles wide. However, after years of drought, the artificial lake is now estimated to be 18-20 miles long and 5 miles wide.

The ring around the edge indicates where the water once stayed. Filkin, an engineering consultant for the Elephant Bart Irrigation District, said that the last time the high water level was reached was in 1995.

“It’s in crisis now. All the reservoirs. There is no water in the lake. It must come from snow. Climate predictions say we won’t get what we got as snow in the past,” said Gary Esslinger, of the Elephant Bart Irrigation District Finance supervisor and manager.

Esslinger said that the monsoon will bring some water, and the area will store this water in empty drainage pipes that can seep into the groundwater to refill the aquifer.

But this may not be enough to keep the ship floating on the reservoir for longer. The water level has dropped so much this season that the dock owner Neil Brown had to move his floating dock to deeper waters, which is an expensive and labor-intensive job.

According to multiple sources, as of Friday, the reservoir’s current storage capacity is 137,000 acre-feet, or about 7% of its capacity. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation said that by the second week of August, the water level may be below 1% of capacity.

Brown worries that if the water level continues to drop, communities and ecosystems will be more difficult to recover.

“If it is as low as they predicted, I will have to close the pier. I won’t be able to float in it,” he said, adding that the state needs to better manage the flow of water that starts in Colorado and then passes through Riogo. Rand traveled through New Mexico. Brown added that a drought plan with a minimum tank level is also needed.

At the same time, the city — which was renamed after the radio and TV quiz show in 1950 — could turn to a spaceport to make up for any loss of water tourism, although Kim is not optimistic.

“We will see how many people attended this conference,” Jin said. “But I will tell you that on the weekend of July 4th or Memorial Day, we can have 100,000 people here, and I don’t expect this to happen during the launch.”