Post-settlement adjudications?
This month's "acequias and adjudication" update will be old news for most of you who follow these issues closely, so apologies in advance. The point of this small post is to push through the seemingly finalized and maybe mundane details of an adjudication "settlement" and ask "what comes next?"
The Aamodt (Pojoaque Basin, NM) and the Abeyta (Taos Valley, NM) adjudications have been legally resolved through settlements funded, finally, by the U.S. Congress and the President's signature. This is good news for residents who worried about the long-term implications of these two pending lawsuits that embroiled locals, state officials, attorneys, the respective tribes, and finally, the federal agencies. Both of these lawsuits, shockingly, were older than I am, born in the late 1960s when water infrastructure and future projects pushed the state to finally file suit to document the water rights in the two water basins.
You can easily find the details of what's involved in other posts, in news outlets, or even in the Congressional records and/or some of the publically-available information from the State Office of the Engineer (of NM). I'm not going to belabor the details here. It does strike me, however, that in both cases there are several "high prices" to the settlement. Personally (and professionally?), I find the Abeyta settlement for the Taos Valley to be more... well, democratic and feasible. Abeyta is not without its problems as the previous link makes clear, and regional water planners will have to be careful not to violate the terms of these settlements. And municipalities and counties have to watch out that their public welfare measures (on water) don't violate the historic easement and access rights for maintaining acequias. But Abeyta won't involve another giant set of pipelines and water infrastructure, at least not in the short-term, unlike the Aamodt settlement. Plus, residents will want to keep an eye out for the "roll out" phase of the new regional water system in the Pojoaque Valley. The state and (SF) county officials have said that non-Indian residents won't be forced to join the system and that they can keep older wells without any risk.
The lack of a firm plan in the Pojoaque Basin, and a clear proposal, leads to a lot of rumor-mongering however. So hopefully we'll get a fully fleshed-out blueprint, and one that comes with a genuine full accounting of (future) costs, soon. These lawsuits were settled out of formal adjudication court, in a settlement setting, but that doesn't mean that the details are finalized, that it's "over," or that there's nothing left to be vigilant about in the two valleys. And residents know this well, already. If adjudication was supposed to proceed using a coarse watershed approach, New Mexicans will have to pay attention that the "better mouse-trap" of a regional water system in the Pojoaque doesn't betray the intentions of water's own behavior in the region. You can order a copy of the "feasibility study" from Santa Fe county here.Until next time...
You can easily find the details of what's involved in other posts, in news outlets, or even in the Congressional records and/or some of the publically-available information from the State Office of the Engineer (of NM). I'm not going to belabor the details here. It does strike me, however, that in both cases there are several "high prices" to the settlement. Personally (and professionally?), I find the Abeyta settlement for the Taos Valley to be more... well, democratic and feasible. Abeyta is not without its problems as the previous link makes clear, and regional water planners will have to be careful not to violate the terms of these settlements. And municipalities and counties have to watch out that their public welfare measures (on water) don't violate the historic easement and access rights for maintaining acequias. But Abeyta won't involve another giant set of pipelines and water infrastructure, at least not in the short-term, unlike the Aamodt settlement. Plus, residents will want to keep an eye out for the "roll out" phase of the new regional water system in the Pojoaque Valley. The state and (SF) county officials have said that non-Indian residents won't be forced to join the system and that they can keep older wells without any risk. 
The lack of a firm plan in the Pojoaque Basin, and a clear proposal, leads to a lot of rumor-mongering however. So hopefully we'll get a fully fleshed-out blueprint, and one that comes with a genuine full accounting of (future) costs, soon. These lawsuits were settled out of formal adjudication court, in a settlement setting, but that doesn't mean that the details are finalized, that it's "over," or that there's nothing left to be vigilant about in the two valleys. And residents know this well, already. If adjudication was supposed to proceed using a coarse watershed approach, New Mexicans will have to pay attention that the "better mouse-trap" of a regional water system in the Pojoaque doesn't betray the intentions of water's own behavior in the region. You can order a copy of the "feasibility study" from Santa Fe county here.
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