Unsettled Waters: A blog on water rights in the American West

Consider this post an "interlude" on purely New Mexican affairs, as we spend some time thinking about urban water demands in the West . That's not entirely true, really, since it was recently announced that a desalination plant may appear on the horizon in northern Albuquerque to treat the vast reserve of brackish water lying under the surface. Who knows, Rio Rancho might be able to boast of the lowest "goiter" incidence rate in the United States if that water is salty enough (ha!). The recent decision by the Nevada State Supreme Court came as a shocker to Las Vegas hydromogul Pat Mulroy . It was another reminder of how important the "urbanization of water" is across the Western United States. The setback for Las Vegas (NV) is notable; the groundwater piping would have extended far into the basins north of the city , and the demise of this system has also set back a possible deal with the state of Utah over water resources. What cities in the Wes...

I had a great lunch yesterday with two well-placed people inside the Office of the State Engineer. Their interests are in law , and let us call them "Dick" and "Jane" for anonymity. And what I came away with, at least, was that adjudication is, in Maria Montoya’s language, a work of property translation . It is the state’s way of seeing and knowing what exists by way of water resources within its own boundaries. And before New Mexico can “ see like a state ” it has to “know” what is “out in” the state by way of rights to water. It’s a necessary (by law) first step to do priority administration in the state of New Mexico, under the doctrine of prior appropriation , even if “active management” of water is now allowed under state statute. We covered a number of aspects over the two hours of discussion: what the latest settlement agreements (passed in the U.S. House) may mean for tackling other, on-going adjudications; the limitations of staffing to actually field...

In the last post, I compared the country of Bolivia with the state of New Mexico and how both "state" entities recognized customary water traditions and rights in national or state statutes, respectively. Here, I want to reflect forwards, in imagining what New Mexico might anticipate or mitigate if free markets on water are aggressively pursued. Perhaps no better case exists on water privatization than the water policies of Chile ; its reforms to water in 1981 are still a New World benchmark for pursuing a private pathway to water pricing and re-allocations. This comparative piece relies on several publications by Bauer (2004, 2005), Budds (2009), Shiveley (2001), and Swyngedouw (2009). Under the thumb of General Pinochet , the country of Chile enacted aggressive free-market policies in the 1981 Water Code (1981). The code recognized not only that water rights were "private," but that the resource itself was a commodity ready for full marketization. The code...

A few days ago, I compared the interesting parallels (and differences) between New Mexico and the country of Spain. This time around, it's New Mexico and Bolivia ; here I want to create an opening for analyzing how both entities (again, a state, and a State respectively) have recognized local, customary water traditions. As you will see and appreciate, there are strong material parallels between how irrigators in Bolivia operate and how acequias in New Mexico handle water management and governance. The differences, however, are just as fascinating and have largely to do with how the claims to water are wrapped around cultural identity. My good colleague, Tom Perreault (Syracuse - Geography), wrote about the recent recognition in Bolivia of local "usos y costumbres" with special focus on the national irrigators' movement. Granted, that country has pursued an arguably anti-neoliberal path on water goverance in recent years, as Tom has suggested. But both Bolivia an...

As I hinted a few days ago, there are some remarkable parallels between the historical geographies of water in the country (" S tate") of Spain and the s tate of New Mexico. I credit the information on Spain to a colleague in anthropology at McGill University (call him Ismael ; no, really). See back a couple of posts but Ismael's "Modernizing mountain water" appears in the co-edited volume Water, Place, and Equity (MIT Press, 2008)*, and is focused on the transformation of Pyrenean water use and its governance, largely on the Spanish side. I have put in a coarse table to outline the parallels between Spain's legal history on water and those of New Mexico. Table - NM by author, Spain from Vaccaro 2008 (230) TIME LINE                     New Mexico                        ...

Yesterday's Water Dialogue meetings at the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center were maybe the best public forum I've attended this whole past year. In my previous post , I had voiced some doubt as to the purpose and openness of the meeting, and now I'm eating crow - a lot of crow. After a keynote address by Helen Ingram , which warmed my heart, that explicitly addressed "place" and "politics" in water governance, the rest of the day was occupied with three separate panel sessions. Speakers were either quite brief, after explaining who they were, or quite long-winded if they had a lot of content to share. I don't begrudge either approach. Ingram's initial volley addressed most of the minor and major lows and highs that were part of the day's activities and discussion points. On the panels, speakers included personnel from the Interstate Stream Commission ( OSE ), the UNM Law School , the Navajo Nation , Elephant Butte Irrigation District , the M...

As I get ready to attend the 16th annual statewide meeeting of the New Mexico Water Dialogue (sic), a quick look at the agenda of the event looks intriguing, even if these are largely about experts and agents involved with water resources talking to each other. For example, a "panel" that begins at 10, ends with a noon cut-off for "lunch." No question and answer session? Call me jaded after so many academic conferences where a small group is only addressing a small group (usually itself). We'll see -- participation is certainly not explicitly scheduled or listed so it'll be interesting if it's a repeat of the MRG Water Assembly I attended a few months ago, or some new beast. Pardon my skepticism. You can see the old topics from the MRG version along with some presentations here . But I hope it's a good meeting, since I'm not sure I'll have the stamina to attend the Buckman Diversion Project public meeting on water quality (= LANL connect...

Since this blog is still flying low under the radar, of most parciantes and water experts, it's no surprise that the hokey "poll" (top right of blog) has attracted so few responses. And to be clear, this was an experiment, this was not my personal or professional view (yet) about adjudication. But I've been thinking long and hard about the ajudication process (not as an outcome ), and how some parts of it probably work fine (hydrographic survey, if it is recent, for example) and how other aspects are more problematic (legalese notices from OSE). So this is a first stab at thinking about possible solutions, reforms, or ideas. If you have your own, I would encourage anyone (!) reading this to post them under comments or to contact me personally. You can also read the official version, from the Administrative Office of the NM Supreme Court's perspective, of how reforms to adjudication could take place here . 1. Simplify the language of notice . Since all fields, p...

This morning, I got the first shot at a public presentation, to an audience of ~16 people at the monthly meeting of the New Mexico Acequia Commission. I want to thank the out-going Chair of the NMAC, Ralph Vigil, for allowing me time to vent on this issue. It was simply, at this stage, a report on "what others have told me" about adjudication issues in/of acequias throughout the state. No disclaimer was needed, I hope, given the fact that it was so brief. There were some members of the OSE present, a few occasionally shaking heads, so it's clear that the story (like any) is only half-right at this stage. But it gave me the opportunity to see what works in the narrative, and what doesn't or needs serious improvement. I'm only doing a first-screen image insert here, since I cannot post the entire document until I'm satisfied that all errors are corrected.  Gracias!

I've been reading through an edited volume entitled " Neoliberal Environments " (Routledge, 2007) and one of the small contributions, a section foreward by Brennan and Theodore (2007, 153-154), lists some of the key ideas emerging from the literature on neoliberal governance. By neoliberalism , they really mean the latest phase in capitalism, so bear with me as we get a little jargon-rich. My point in listing these out here is that if you substitute the word "adjudication" for neoliberalism, it actually works well. I'm working on an article that argues that adjudication was necessary to have any kind of free-market implementation for water resources in New Mexico.* So below I've listed these side by side, with a check if the substitution works, a check - if it is awkward or too soon to tell, and a check+ if the parallel is downright creepy. The list, please remember, is generated as a way of summarizing what social scientists, especially geographers, ...

As we enter 2010, my eyes are turned on the possible, or rather probable, effects of the Lower Rio Grande (LRG) adjudication ( link to map author)and water monitoring/metering issues on the Rio Mimbres in southern New Mexico. While the LRG adjudication drags on, the interesting facet or monkey-wrench if you will is the pending case of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District. Nathan Boyd's great-grandson, Scott Boyd, has been in court over the last 15-20 years challenging the illegal foundations for federal reserve water rights in the EB dam, and what he says is the illegal taking of his great-grandfather's water rights and infrastructure. You can read more about some of these claims, with documentation, here . Why should this matter to parciantes on the middle or upper Rio Grande? Well, if the U.S. federal government never legally acquired (or had available, a different distinction) water rights, then all the storage in EB and Caballo is in question. When I spoke to Boyd on...