Abicu, New Mexico (AP) — At the edge of a sandstone outcrop, Teresa Leger Fernandez overlooks Rio Charma. The river traces a variety of landscapes, from the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains to the rugged basalt hillsides, volcanic tuff layers, and the red and yellow cliffs made famous by the painter Georgia O’Keeffe.
It marks the origin of New Mexico’s centuries-old tradition of sharing water through an irrigation system known as Acequia.
It is also one of the many places facing more pressure in the dry west as the drought lasts for another decade and climate change builds up as temperatures rise.
Formerly an Acequian commissioner and now a U.S. congressman, Leger Fernandez shows how difficult it is to tell farmers that they can’t get all the water they need, or not at all. I know.
She talks about cleaning the annual Limpia, or Acequia in preparation for the planting season.
“There was always a sense of accomplishment, but what we are witnessing now is that we can’t always do that because of the lack of water,” she said during a tour with Acequian officials. “And you’re all facing something you didn’t make, right? But you have to overcome the struggle to make available water available to everyone in the community. . “
Some soil canals did not receive water droplets this year. This is another example of a dry western condition. Like many parts of the world, this area has been warm and dry over the last three decades. This is primarily due to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases resulting from the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas development and transportation.
Boat docks are high and dry in the reservoirs around New Mexico, and Lake Powell along the Utah-Arizona line hit a record low this year. Northern California’s major reservoirs, which help water a quarter of US crops, are shrinking.
It is scrambled for the decree that oversees Acequia and ensures fair water distribution.
The snow melts faster as the temperature rises and less snow falls. Dry soil absorbs runoff before reaching the streams and rivers that supply Acequia.
Paula Garcia, Executive Secretary of the New Mexico Sekia Association, has avoided the phrase “new normal” because it means the stability of the weather patterns on which the community ditches depend.
“We get up quickly and try to adapt as much as we can, but it tests what we can really call elasticity,” she said. Corn and blackberries are baked in the sun. “I think we are resilient, but to what point are we resilient? We are hitting what those turning points are.”
Federal water management policies face complex challenges as the needs of cities and other users obscure these Hispanic and indigenous communities.
Their tradition is rooted in the Moorish ingenuity that was first brought to Europe and then to North America through Spanish settlers. These water-sharing ideas merged with the already sophisticated irrigation culture developed by today’s indigenous communities in the southwestern United States.
What was developed was a small paradise with gardens and orchards that have supported the community for generations.
Approximately 640 New Mexico’s Acequia still supplies thousands of acres of farmland.
Darrell Madrid, president of the Rio Chama Sekia Association, did not grow a garden this year. He wanted to set an example and lead.
“It will get worse before it gets better,” said Madrid, who likes nothing but growing watermelons again. “There is a certain point where you can only rely on rainwater and the monsoon season as long as you reduce the amount of snow and keep the spring warm. That would be bad.”
After a series of dry summer rainy seasons, this year it rained above average in some parts of the southwest. However, the map is still dark and nearly 99% of the west is dealing with some form of drought.
Madrid said some Parsiantes (or members of Acequia) grow their crops and supply them to local farm-to-table programs and farmers markets. Many do it to subsidize income in areas where many live near poverty.
When the water-sharing compact, which included some of New Mexico’s largest cities, was first negotiated decades ago, Madrid said the community along Rio Chama was excluded. Due to the current shortage of supplies, Acequia around Avicu is forced to look for state funding to buy water from downstream users. If none are available, they are not.
Water can be diverted by Acequia as long as Rio Chama flows over 140 cubic feet per second. Flows usually plummet in May and rations begin below 50cfs. Except for the isolated spikes from the storm spill, the flow is now less than half that.
Madrid said Acequia would benefit from permanent storage in upstream reservoirs. This requires federal approval.
“The bottom line is that we want to be self-sufficient,” he said. “We want to be able to take care of ourselves.”
Since 2017, more than $ 5.3 million has been invested in dozens of community irrigation projects through the New Mexico Interstate River Commission. Since 2018, an additional $ 15 million has been allocated to the Sekia project.
Madrid said state and federal authorities were beginning to pay attention as more Acequia organized and spoken.
Leger Fernández said Acequia represents some of the earliest forms of government that preceded the United States.
“What we are trying to do now is to preserve what Parciante, the Majordomo and the Commissioner can do for 400 years,” she told a group gathered along Rio Chama.
Part of that means rethinking Acequia without giving up the sense of the community they command.
At Santa Cruz Farm, he said, owner Don Bustos grows crops in greenhouses in the fall and winter, when he needs less water and less evaporation.
In Taos, Acequian leaders clean every fall to ensure early spills are not missed.
Madrid recalls the story of a futuristic comic book in which an elaborate system of pipes and distribution cards is used to control water. He hopes it never happens, but he and others have admitted that Acequia needs an upgrade for another 400 years.
Garcia said he believes farmers, soil health gurus and seed savers are always in the rural valleys of New Mexico. They will just have to innovate.
“There are a lot of adaptations that I haven’t touched on yet. Now I can barely see the beginning,” she said. “We are dealing with ditches centuries ago, and in another century they may look very different, but I think we are still here.”
Acequia has overcome regular environmental crises, competition between water users and serious historical changes, Spanish historian and anthropologist Luis Pablo Martinez San Martin said in a 2020 research report. Stated. He said survival depends on the design of common good based on cooperation, respect, impartiality, transparency and negotiation.
Leger Fernandez continued to return to the idea of mutual respect with the community as he walked the blackberry line on Bustos’ farm and never missed the opportunity to choose another berry. She also talked about collecting caprins (or bitter-berries) and roasting blue corn to make an atole (traditional drink) for sharing during the holidays.
“For me, Acequia is what we should be, the most perfect symbol of the community,” she said.
Drought Tests Centuries Old Water Tradition in New Mexico | WGN Radio 720
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