Water Transfers in the West Efficiency, Equity, and the Environment (1992) / Chapter Skim
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7 Northern New Mexico: Differing Notions of Water, Property, and Community
7 Northern New Mexico: Differing Notions of Water, Property, and Community
Pages 162-181
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From page 162... ...
In the nineteenth century, Anglo property concepts were superimposed over the more communal traditions of the pueblos and Hispanic irrigation communities. Today New Mexico has a sophisticated water allocation system that basically treats water as a commodity to maximize the efficiency of use of the resource.
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From page 163... ...
Anglo settlement brought the new idea that resources are commodities to be bought and sold. THE SErrING The Rio Grande can be divided into three segments: the upper Rio Grande, the Rio Chama, and the middle Rio Grande.
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From page 164... ...
___________! 't ~ ~ Albuquerque Elephant Butte ~ Reservoir `` Area of Detail FIGURE 7.1 Main waterways and related features, northern New Mexico.
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From page 165... ...
Water from Heron Reservoir enters the Rio Chama, which flows into E1 Vado Reservoir, built by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District to store spring runoff and supplement the supply of district irrigators. Releases from E1 Vado enter a reach of the Rio Chama designated by the New Mexico Legislature as a Scenic and Pastoral River.
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From page 166... ...
In New Mexico, water rights could be obtained through an original land grant, through a subsequent administrative grant, or by a later judicial determination. This process, known as composition, could "cleanse, authenticate, and even alter original grants" and could resolve disputes through the application of equitable principles (Meyer, 1984~.
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From page 167... ...
The district includes more than 123,000 irrigable acres, of which more than 87,000 acres were being irrigated in 1980 (Clark, 1987; MacDonnell, 1990; Shupe and Folk-Williams, 1988~. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District has zealously guarded water rights appurtenant to land within its service area and has prevented the transfer of irrigation rights initiated since the district's formation.
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From page 168... ...
Below the Otowi Bridge compact accounting point lie Santa Fe and Sandoval counties. Much of the irrigated area of these counties is north or west of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District boundaries.
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From page 169... ...
Current estimates are $2.4 million for expansion of the Buckman fields, excluding the cost of water rights acquisition, and $6 million or more for a surface diversion system (Santa Fe Metropolitan Water Board, 1988~. Four Indian Pueblos, the Pojoaque Valley Irrigation District, the Tesuque Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association, 28 community ditch associations, and 2,250 individual water rights holders in the Nambe, Pojoaque, and Tesuque watersheds will have their rights determined in the adjudication.
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From page 170... ...
of water rights in more than 25 separate transactions (Nunn, 1989~. The state engineer estimates that non-Indian irrigators between Cochiti Dam and Elephant Butte have consumptive use rights for about 128,000 acre-feet (160,000 ML)
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From page 171... ...
Nevertheless, 63,000 acre-feet (77,710 ML) of the non-Indian agricultural water rights are outside the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District below the Otowi Bridge Compact accounting point and can be transferred to municipalities under current rules and policies.
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From page 172... ...
of water in Rio Arriba County to support a ski resort. The transfer was approved by the state engineer after proof that no vested water rights would be impaired, but a district judge voided the approval because the transfer was contrary to the public interest, which was defined as preservation of a local subsistence economy.
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From page 173... ...
by some affected parties and have been perceived as generating third party impacts similar to those experienced when water rights are transferred to new locations or uses. A fifth type of transfer with potential third party impacts involves change of water rights ownership within an acequia.
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From page 174... ...
Impacts on Community and Environmental Values Increasing demands for water that has been used by cultures and communities living in New Mexico for centuries have led to decisions to transfer water and water rights, in some cases between hydrological basins. These transfers have had and continue to have impacts on third parties in the state.
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From page 175... ...
It is mainly the water rights of the Pueblos that are at issue in the Rio Grande. The Pueblo Indians of northern New Mexico are heirs to an indigenous North American irrigation tradition that spread from central Mexico, Meso-America, to the Hohokam of central Arizona, to the Anasazi.
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From page 176... ...
To complicate matters, the court held that the Pueblo Lands Act of 1924 also "fixed the measure of pueblo water rights to acreage irrigated as of that date." If the concept of this case is upheld on appeal, the Pueblo Lands Act must be interpreted to determine the upper limit placed on Pueblo water rights by Congress. The adjudication has established that Pueblo water rights with aboriginal priorities do exist, although the doctrinal basis differs from general federal reserved Indian rights.
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From page 177... ...
White water rafting groups have negotiated with Albuquerque and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District to enhance recreational opportunities on the Rio Chama. The city and district have agreed, on a year-by-year basis, to schedule their summer releases from E1 Vado Reservoir to correspond with weekend rafting needs in the stretch above Abiquiu Reservoir.
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From page 178... ...
The Hispanic community of northern New Mexico, for example, considers itself a third party affected by almost every water decision- determinations of water rights, transfer of a parcel of land from one owner to another, and changes in the place or use of a water right. State water law considers the public interest in new appropriations and transfers, but fails to include in such considerations the traditional community values tied to water.
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From page 180... ...
Ma fretful march Afternoon—is that all this. legalistic hairsplitting ' ' 1, overwater rights needs th'e"lor,~g-'term.ratificatior.,s of the weather..........
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From page 181... ...
1989. New Mexico water law: Determining public welfare values in water rights allocation.
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