Big water, small water
So, after about three weeks of reading, discussions with 'water experts,' site visits, interviews, and driving around...it's clear to me that adjudication in New Mexico should have ignored acequias (and Pueblos!) entirely in terms of water rights. Their needs are so "small water" compared to the urban projects underway to deliver water ("big water") that trying to take poor Hispanic and Pueblo irrigators to court and make them 'prove up' their water rights is like trying to fumigate every apple in an orchard individually...silly.
A quick visit out to the Buckman Project site confirmed these thoughts as I heard engineers, hydrologists, and a lawyer discuss their plans to siphon off Rio Grande waters from near the White Rock overlook area, and pump that water uphill to the suburbs and holding tanks west and southwest of Santa Fe. Oh, but it's not Rio Grande water, it's technically "San Juan and Chama Rivers" water that Santa Fe has rights to use...except that they have to pump it out of the Rio Grande. And they have to pump it 1100 feet uphill, through 30" pipe. Wow. Big water. Reisner would have loved to see this - and yes, that's sarcasm.
Photo: Rio Chama, near Abiquiu, below the dam.
Need some contrast? OK, a few days later, I hiked up with a mayordomo and a good colleague up to the headwaters of the Rio en Medio that flows into the Nambe River and, eventually, into the Tesuque River. There's a humble, concrete splitter box at about 8300 feet that literally splits the waters in two, with a good portion going straight down the regular Medio stream, with a smaller portion going to a hand-dug ditch that eventually drops into a usually-dry Rio Chupadero...and then irrigates the land on the upper and lower Rio Chupadero. Naturally, the latter would be an ephemerally running stream, mostly spring meltwaters, but by arrangement (1891), the town of Chupadero was able to convince their neighbors to share the water for irrigation. An informal arrangement at first, that has endured thanks to a more formal document (convenio), and that is the bane of "hyper-formalizing" water rights with the state's approval...even if this stream amounts to a few cubic feet per second.
So, once again, is adjudication actually worth it? Should the acequias simply be 'mapped' and left alone? Compelling questions (at least for me)...
A quick visit out to the Buckman Project site confirmed these thoughts as I heard engineers, hydrologists, and a lawyer discuss their plans to siphon off Rio Grande waters from near the White Rock overlook area, and pump that water uphill to the suburbs and holding tanks west and southwest of Santa Fe. Oh, but it's not Rio Grande water, it's technically "San Juan and Chama Rivers" water that Santa Fe has rights to use...except that they have to pump it out of the Rio Grande. And they have to pump it 1100 feet uphill, through 30" pipe. Wow. Big water. Reisner would have loved to see this - and yes, that's sarcasm.
Photo: Rio Chama, near Abiquiu, below the dam.
Need some contrast? OK, a few days later, I hiked up with a mayordomo and a good colleague up to the headwaters of the Rio en Medio that flows into the Nambe River and, eventually, into the Tesuque River. There's a humble, concrete splitter box at about 8300 feet that literally splits the waters in two, with a good portion going straight down the regular Medio stream, with a smaller portion going to a hand-dug ditch that eventually drops into a usually-dry Rio Chupadero...and then irrigates the land on the upper and lower Rio Chupadero. Naturally, the latter would be an ephemerally running stream, mostly spring meltwaters, but by arrangement (1891), the town of Chupadero was able to convince their neighbors to share the water for irrigation. An informal arrangement at first, that has endured thanks to a more formal document (convenio), and that is the bane of "hyper-formalizing" water rights with the state's approval...even if this stream amounts to a few cubic feet per second.
So, once again, is adjudication actually worth it? Should the acequias simply be 'mapped' and left alone? Compelling questions (at least for me)...
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