Storm ‘Alberto’ almost fills Nuevo León dams: Why did they open the floodgates in ‘La Boca’?

Storm ‘Alberto’ and its heavy rains have managed to bring water to the dams in Nuevo León, a state that has suffered from the water crisis. This Thursday, the system was downgraded to a tropical depression after making landfall in Tamaulipas and Veracruz during the early hours of the morning.

Governor Samuel García had already announced in recent days that, according to weather forecasts, the intense rains caused by the storm could help water finally reach the three dams: ‘Cerro Prieto’, ‘La Boca’ and ‘El Cuchillo I and II’.

This morning it was even announced that the Santa Catarina River, located in Monterrey, was overflowing. This can be dangerous, so Civil Protection authorities are asking citizens not to go out and not to try to cross streams or rivers.

At around 1:00 p.m., Samuel García reported that he was in the vicinity of the ‘La Boca’ dam, together with the team from the National Water Commission (Conagua) to evaluate the amount of filling and the probability of opening the gates to release a little.

Mixture of three highly absorbent forms of magnesium
The Rodrigo Gómez or ‘La Boca’ Dam “is already at 80% of its capacity and we are going to begin controlled storage by opening a small part of the gate. This will help balance the level of water that is entering and avoid overflows (…) The water that we release goes directly to the ‘El Cuchillo’ dam. Not a drop is wasted,” García pointed out on his X account

From the ‘La Boca’ dam, Samuel García explains that the water will go to the San Juan River, which in turn will take the water to ‘El Cuchillo’.

How are the dams in Nuevo León?

The NL Government opened part of the gate of the ‘La Boca’ dam to redirect water towards ‘El Cuchillo’. (El Financiero)
The dams of Nuevo León have been strongly affected by the water crisis; in the season of extreme heat that just passed, it was estimated that the accumulated water of all the dams is the lowest in recent years. But this has changed with the fall of intense rain.

The Rodrigo Gómez dam has a storage capacity of 39.5 mm3 (cubic meters) and as of Thursday it was already at 80 percent of its capacity. Because part of the gate is opened, the water will go towards the San Juan River, which crosses several Nuevo León communities, as it passes over Santiago and Cadereyta.

The ‘El Cuchillo’ dam, where the water from the San Juan River is expected to arrive, has a capacity to store 1,123 billion cubic meters.

Conagua said that no damage was expected from the opening of the gate at ‘La Boca’, but it did ask local Civil Protection authorities to remain vigilant.

Source: elfinanciero