Taos County Conundrum: Which Community?

The House that Painter Built!

Introduction

Taos County’s Regional Water Plan includes a Public Welfare statement meant to guide decision making and provides for an advisory committee to evaluate whether or not to protest water rights transfers from one watershed or watershed basin to another. The criteria includes the degree to which the transfer will impact local culture, agrarian character, ecological health of watersheds, economic vitality, recreational tourism, water supply management, conservation, conjunctive management, contamination, and information regarding public notice and awareness. The Taos County Water Advisory Committee makes recommendations to the Taos County Commissioners.

Both Taos County and the Town of Taos endorsed the regional water plan and public welfare statement in order to prepare a document that would provide a legal basis for protesting against water rights transfers that would have negative impacts on the area’s water supply. For instance Santa Fe County purchased 1100 acre feet of water in 1999 from Top of the World farms north of Questa in an effort to meet the terms of the Aamodt Settlement, a 40-year lawsuit, similar to the Taos Abeyta-Taos Pueblo lawsuit, in Pojoaque. Santa Fe also plans to finalize the purchase of another 600 acre-feet. The Office of the State Engineer (OSE) has yet to approve the transfer.

Politics of Omission

At the Taos County Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 1, Taos County Water Advisory Chair person, Kay Matthews, resigned to protest Taos County’s lack of response to a recommendation against the transfer of some 183 acre feet of water from the Llano Ditch in Questa to the Rio Lucero ditch near Arroyo Seco—a transfer from one watershed to another. The $500,000 deal, promoted by alleged water rights owner, Lawrence Ortega and Taos Valley Acequia Association (TVAA) guru Palemon Martinez aims to satisfy a portion of the Abeyta—Taos Pueblo Water Rights settlement on the Rio Lucero, a ditch for which Palemon is an officer and parciante.

The deal involves drilling a deep mitigation well for aquifer storage and recovery. The advisory committee recommended 6-2 against the transfer due to negative impacts on Questa’s Llano acequia. Advisory member and Arroyo Seco partisan Joe Torre, voted for Palemon’s deal, which would have a positive effect on his, Torres’ ditch rights.

Commissioner Gabe Romero politely questioned Torres about his decision and potential “conflict of interest.” Joe, in response, equivocated, blamed the state engineer, generally discussed water rights as a private property right–though he admitted he’d never support a water rights purchase that negatively affected his ditch.

Such are the ethics in El Norte when it comes to “conflict of interest.” My backyard is more important than your backyard.

Commissioners Differ

Commissioners Blankenhorn and Barrone said they supported Abeyta and didn’t want to get sideways with their constituents in El Prado, for instance, which district recently purchased about 300 acre feet of water in Sunshine, north of Questa. On the other hand, both Barrone and Blankenhorn said they firmly oppose losing “the community’s water” to outside interests i.e. downstream buyers. County constituents in Questa, including Mayor Garcia and Llano Ditch member Jeannie Masters were present and debated the effects of Palemon’s request to transfer water rights on Tuesday from Questa to Arroyo Seco. Barrone’s notion of community, apparently, referred to county lines but not communities within the county, which are differentiated as much by culture as by watersheds.

Commissioner Gabe Romero openly questioned the commission’s omission—why was no meeting called to address the recommendation of the advisory committee? After a lot of double talk from staff, Commission Chair Barrone agreed to hold a work-study session on transfer issues. County Manager Steve Archuleta said he would try and organize a work meeting for Oct. 29 and contact the state engineer.

After water advisory committee member Ron Gardiner explained the facts of watersheds and how a paper transfer from the Questa area created no new water in the Taos Valley, Commissioner Joe Mike Duran saw the light and joined Commissioner Romero in raising a red flag. Commissioner Larry Sanchez of Questa was absent.

Keeping an Eye on Commissioners

Faith-based Hydrology?

The Abeyta agreement hinges, partially, on drilling deep mitigation wells at least 1000 feet, to pump water and/or store it. At the time signatories settled the Abeyta—Taos Pueblo lawsuit, water studies i.e. aquifer mapping had yet to be completed and are not completed to this day. But the signatories, encouraged by previous hydrology studies, agreed to this system of mitigation.

Commissioner Tom Blankenhorn has repeatedly expressed his faith in hydrologists’ estimates of water availability in the “Rio Grande Rift,” a geological feature representing some of the most complex geology on earth right here in Taos County, according to studies published by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources.

As Water Advisory Committee member Ron Gardiner pointed out the transfer of a paper water right from Questa creates no new water in the Taos Valley but deep wells will deplete the springs that feed the Rio Grande. Commissioner Blankenhorn said there would be no effect on the Questa ditch since the paper water rights didn’t affect the actual flow of water and no land was being irrigated by the seller. Questa Mayor Garcia who is an officer on the Cabresto Ditch, which feeds the ditch in question, mentioned that Cabresto’s senior water rights mean the Llano Ditch’s water rights are secondary or sobrante rights.

In other words Palemon is paying alleged owner Lawrence Ortega $500,000 for the rights to “run-off,” water rights separated, apparently, from land sold for a subdivision in Questa.

Duck’n Cover Effects

By ducking the Abeyta issue, Taos County Commissioners are devaluing the work of the Water Advisory Committee, which committee made recommendations, based on criteria in the ordinance. “We played by the rules,” said Ron Gardiner, a committee member. Furthermore, the Commission is imperiling the use of the Public Welfare clause, which is designed to protect Taos County’s water resources, when confronted by out-of-county buyers and the OSE (Office of State Engineer).

Now attorneys for Santa Fe County or the OSE can argue that Taos County does not support and follow its own ordinance. In the eyes of commissioners and residents, Taosenos are special but in the eyes of the court, you can’t separate local residents from downstream residents as a legal class. The Public Welfare Statement was carefully written to focus on a number of criteria, per the example of federal court decisions, regarding the importance of water resources to culture, community, and watersheds.

Of course, Commissioners Barrone and Blankenhorn are faced with a political conundrum, due to their constituents in the Town of Taos, El Prado, and Arroyo Seco et al. But the “movida makers,” like TVAA’s Palemon Martinez, who operate according to “self-interest,” adopt notions of “custom” or more modern solutions—drilling wells–when politically expedient, are way ahead of the commissioners.

Magical Thinking

Faith-based belief in hydrology–drilling mitigation wells into the Rio Grande Rift–is only the beginning. Hypocrites at the Town of Taos, an Abeyta signatory, have violated the rights of parciantes on a number of local ditches, including the Spring Ditch and the ditches in Valverde Commons.

As TVAA Attorney Rebecca Dempsey told parciantes at a recent meeting, the administration of the Abeyta settlement—metering wells and ditch flows—i.e. a system of monitoring the Abeyta agreement has not been set up or agreed to in terms of enforcing the settlement. There is no current provision for a water master or administrator of the agreement. Parciantes, water rights holders on acequias, cannot be expected to file lawsuits in federal court every time they disagree with their neighbors about time or use of water for irrigation.

Faith in the Abeyta—Taos Pueblo Water Settlement requires magical thinking about human behavior and the deeper mysteries of nature, not to mention “dry” v. “wet” water rights, an idea which borders on farce. Meanwhile, there is an elephant in the room that neither Abeyta signatories nor Taos County nor the OSE really wants to confront i.e. the health and nourishment of Mother Nature’s watersheds.

Flume Near Penasco

Watersheds, Money, Expertise

Watersheds—streams, forests, soil and vegetation—are affected by the intervention of Homo sapiens: road and house builders, utility infrastructure, fire and erosion. Climate change means more drought and floods—extreme effects due to weather. Political subdivisions and short-term plans aimed at satisfying representatives of the political and legal class mostly ignore the effects of their decisions on the care of watersheds and the way in which the acequia and stream systems have become part of Mother Nature’s complex relationship with the cultural communities of northern New Mexico, including Taos Pueblo.

Taos County Water Advisory Committee member Ron Gardiner mentioned to Taos County Commissioners on Tuesday how other jurisdictions–Rio Arriba and Santa Fe had employees working fulltime on water issues in their counties. Gardiner, a Questa resident, longtime hunter, wildlife surveyor, water and community—wildfire expert, as well as a legislative analyst of conservation issues, said, “Taos County is in the cross-hairs.” He was referring to thirsty downstream municipalities with tons of cash aimed at buying water rights from Taosenos.

Chair person Kay Matthews is editor and publisher of the online La Jicarita, one of the only publications that actively investigates water, land, and community issues in El Norte. Kay was one of the few Taos County residents to protest against the Top of the World sale of water rights to Santa Fe County some 15 years ago—when Taos politicos were asleep. Chairman Barrone urged Kay to withdraw her resignation on Tuesday. We hope he or the manager calls her and gets her back on the committee.

We need defenders of El Norte water resources, volunteers like Gardiner and Matthews, whose historical knowledge is invaluable to Taos County residents. Sure, annexation and Command Center politics grab the headlines. But water issues, like the poor, will always be with us.