Historic Water Settlement Meetings
On Friday night, Sept. 13, 2013, The Taos Valley Acequia Association met with its members, parciantes, interested parties, and principal representatives of the signatories to the Abeyta—Taos Pueblo Water Settlement. The Office of the State Engineer has sent out over 15,000 notices to affected parties, any of whom may file objections in federal court to the Settlement by Oct. 28. But as TVAA attorney Rebecca Dempsey made clear, historically and in view of other cases, involving long-term litigation and adjudication of water rights matters, this is a rare opportunity, given federal funding and the perils of further court battles, to settle and move into the next phase of the settlement, due to current negotiations.
In other words, few if any of the parciantes can afford more litigation, especially litigation in federal court, where parciantes are out-gunned by Taos Pueblo, whose aboriginal water rights or priority water rights are buttressed by deep pockets, whether the source is federal largesse wielded by the BIA or more immediate profits from the casino cash flow. As Telesfor Gonzales, a member of several ditches and the El Prado Water and Sanitation District said, while mentioning the history of TVAA, including names, like Eduardo Lavadie, Geoff Bryce, and Fred Waltz (all RIP), “it’s not the best for everyone,” and “not the best deal” but “we can work with it as the best solution.” Taos Pueblo has chosen not to pursue their aboriginal water rights and, in turn, TVAA, the Town of Taos, El Prado W&S, and the 12 Mutual Domestic Water Consumer’s Associations, have signed off on the settlement.
The more compelling question at this point concerns the “administration” of this complicated settlement, a settlement which is resolved by “mitigation well system” or drilling wells to offset the loss of water, due to changes in use and allocation of water. Dempsey said the administrative aspect of the settlement hadn’t been settled. “The parties must agree. If they don’t agree, they can go back to court.” So, the next step may involve an “enforcement administrator” or some version of a “water master,” the latter example a common practice among irrigators in the west.
As always at meetings on acequia matters, private ditch grievances were voiced but as TVAA spokesperson and guru Palemon Martinez made clear, the meeting was about the settlement, not about resolving disputes among parciantes. More dramatically, Mayordomo Dave Rael and parciante Jerome Lucero, both of the Spring Ditch, made their case against the Town of Taos, signatory to the settlement, which municipality has caused the source of the ditch to dry up and blocked portions of the ditch, contrary to the New Mexico Constitution, and, at least the spirit of the settlement. Hence the Spring Ditch parciantes refuse to sign the agreement, regardless, because the Town of Taos is abusing and otherwise curtailing—i.e. destroying—their ditch. The Town of Taos, too, has allowed other ditches to dry up or fall out of use, due to ongoing development.
At least some parciantes in Arroyo Hondo may file protests because they see the settlement as a masquerade or an attempt to hijack Hondo’s priority rights by the areas east and upriver, i.e. Valdez, Desmontes, and Arroyo Seco, due to influential members on the board of TVAA.
Despite the complex solution, mitigation wells, based on assumptions about complex hydrology and the intricate legal maneuvering, aberrant and anti-customary practices by some of the signatories in general or in particular, the settlement appears to be as Tele said, “The best deal” anyone’s gonna get at this time—except for those, who, like the parciantes on the Spring Ditch, are clinging to life but tentatively. Basically, the agreement also adjudicates water rights as a property right, a right, which can be sold by a willing seller to a willing buyer. And sure as the sun will rise, the buyers are coming.
More public meetings will be held at The Town of Taos, Rio Grande Hall on Civic Plaza Drive, this Tuesday, September 17, 2013 and Tuesday, October 8, 2013 Time at 6:00 pm. Representatives from the Taos Pueblo, the Taos Valley Acequia Association, the El Prado Water and Sanitation District, the Town of Taos, Mutual Domestic Water Users Associations, the Office of the State Engineer, the United States, and the UNM School of Law, Utton Center will speak and answer questions about the terms of the Settlement Agreement and the court approval process.
Editor’s Note: These meetings, part of an ongoing 23 to 27-year negotiating process, which started because of a lawsuit filed in 1969, and focus not only on local water and agricultural issues but also on the future of thirsty municipalities up and down the Rio Grande and the Colorado, due to interstate compacts. The complex geology of the Rio Grande rift below the surface might be less complicated that the cultural ramifications of human relations between parciantes and their neighbors at Taos Pueblo or in greater Taos County.
There is an historic opportunity for all the residents to take advantage of Taos County’s position at the New Mexico headwaters of the Rio Grande for the sake of home-grown food security and survival in these perilous times. The historic survival of Taos Pueblo since “time immemorial” is a good example to us all as is the acequia system. But the interest in agricultural self-sufficiency has been fading or in a state of inertia among the traditional guardians of crops and water.
Even as parciantes or elders at Taos Pueblo lament the lack of younger folks taking an interest in traditional agricultural practices, other younger Taosenos are starting up gardens and contributing to farm-fresh markets. The entire leadership of the community, at the County, the Town, and Taos Pueblo need to reinforce and adapt to new agricultural practices if we are to survive the onslaught of corporate America. And there is precedent here, too, for fighting back against the occupiers when we’re not fighting with each other.