Adjudication Round-table (March 18, 2011 report)

Well, more than two months have gone by (again), and I'm in the position of playing a bit of catch-up for the purposes of this blog. Hopefully I can begin to re-commit to these writing activities now that stand-up teaching (always a curious phrase) is over for me at CC. I wanted to report on a fascinating, and inter-disciplinary, conversation hosted by Sylvia Rodriguez (Prof Emeritus, UNM Anthropology) this past March 18, 2011 at the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. The point of the conversation was the water adjudication process in New Mexico, putatively, but we wandered far and wide on topics ranging from ecosystem rights to water, to Powell' original "watershed" democracy proposal in the 19th century, to how other states have coped (or haven't) with the demands of a general stream adjudication.

After some formal and informal introductions, our discussion started to hone in on the real issues of "why adjudication" started in the first place; there are simple reasons for a state to do so, apart from state mandates and statutes. As one technician at OSE shared with me back in 2009, "How can we manage water when we don't even know how much water there is available to manage?" Yet bringing suit to force people to document or substantiate their water use in a watershed is a shifting target. We discussed how the changes in mapping and data technology now allows the OSE to make much quicker work for adjudication field-mapping. The old maps, for example, for the past adjudications were commonly on linen and Mylar. As soon as crop and water use were recorded, those data (for that growing season) were largely obsolete, since farmers change crops, and thus change water use year to year. This is why, frankly, the so-called "STS" or science and technology studies literature, is relevant and interesting. If technology does indeed change us, and that technology changes over time, well then.... The other related prong to this conversation is frankly the development imperative that still rules water governance and adjudication concerns: the reason for adjudication is not only to quantify and assign rights, but also to figure out "what is left" for apportioning out and planning for future water development. It tickled this geographer to hear someone (a non-geographer) actually use (David) Harvey's phrase of "accumulation by dispossession" - and what this means is complex: It can mean that by establishing some use first, even before rights are assigned or verified, one can accumulate rights even as a junior water rights user. Or, it can mean the simple and outright purchase of water rights away from rural (in theory) water users, as urban areas grow and demand more municipal water. Or... well, again, you get the point.

As a group, we discussed how the recent federally-funded water settlements (Aamodt for Pojoaque; Abeyta for Taos) will be implemented. Since they are now settled, they now avoid state courts. The files will be considered 'closed' and a decree issued if parties to the settlement can agree that there are no longer serious issues in each watershed. That remains to be seen, and is frankly the basis for some on-going research this coming summer. Do settlements actually "settle" adjudications?

The discussion was also recorded by Jack Loeffler, who created a multi-CD set of audio recordings on the Colorado River which are absolutely fabulous (Watersheds as Commons) and are highly recommended if you are a water wonk or education of any kind. We'll see what comes of these recordings, and how we can (and cannot) use them or make them available. Given my inelegant oral eruptions, I can only imagine how some might take the statements we shared with each other in odd ways. But the conversation was valuable, and given our very different backgrounds, goals, and interests, totally worthwhile. I thank Sylvia Rodriguez for bringing us all together. The last hour of our dialogue was really to focus some attention for a special issue of the Journal of the Southwest on water adjudications in the Southwest, centered on New Mexico and Arizona. But more on the latter will be forthcoming later this year (September). Finally, after a long day, we decided to stay in touch and share resources - perhaps this group, along with others, will convene again.

If only I'd had this kind of resource and conversation five years ago as I was entertaining this project on adjudication and acequias.

For the record, the attendees were:Herb Becker, long-time lawyer for the DoJ (and active in Indian water suits)
Darcy Bushnell, the UNM Utton Center, Director of the Stell Ombudsman Program
Leslie Kryder, Technical Assistance Provider at Rural Community Assistance Corporation
Jack Loeffler, Lore of the Land (and session recorder)
Sam Markwell  (UNM graduate student, Am Studies)
Eric Perramond (Colorado College)
Sylvia Rodriguez, Prof Emeritus of Anthropology, UNM & our host (also the Ortiz Center at UNM)
Melanie Stansbury (ABD, Sociology, Cornell University)
Elise Trott (UNM graduate student, Anthro)