What is Going on Here? Preservation or Decline?

Intro

Sometimes I like to ask myself, “what is going on,” especially at times when great changes are affecting the community. The community for me includes Taos County writ large along the Rio Grande from southern Costilla County in Colorado to the north and then south along the Rio through the Canyon to northern Rio Arriba County. Artificial political boundaries frequently affect, as do highways, the natural inclination of watersheds and streams, rivers, and even acequias that were built by taking the contour of the land into consideration. (I am indebted to Ron Gardiner for my initial tutelage in watershed studies.)

At the center of this topographical configuration is the “Soul of the Southwest,” aka the Town of Taos, where economic forces are the organizing principle while the forces of historic preservation and the lament for a nostalgic past can be seen in conflict with the pragmatic and conventional capitalism. As historian Rachel Prinz noted in her recent discussion of historic acequias in the Town of Taos, some 380 breaks in the system have occurred. Currently, the Spring Ditch parciantes are fighting back to little or no avail against the forces of development both conventional and “crooked” in the Town of Taos. Goodbye parciantes.

The Protest

At Tuesday’s Taos County Commission meeting, Feb. 17, the decision of the County Commissioners to drop a protest against El Prado’s request to transfer water rights from he Gallagher Ranch in northern Taos County to Water and Sanitation District signaled the end of one era and the beginning of another. Among other conclusions, one can see how the power of the $130 million Abeyta-Taos Pueblo Water Settlement has become the driving force of future development. The “good old boys” have stars in their eyes.

In what amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy and confirmation by the Office of the State Engineer (OSE), the El Prado Water and Sanitation District’s “Painter” John created a “40-year plan” that called for using 525 acre feet of water per year (afy). In turn, the Office of State Engineer (OSE) told the District to go out and get the water rights to satisfy the “plan.” Currently the District uses only 100 afy at most for its 380-metered customers.

So El Prado is preparing for the year 2055, while engaged upon, simultaneously, creating a water market, leasing water rights to growing Albuquerque suburbs, and simultaneously trying to convince the OSE that its okay to set a new standard of paying some $20,000 per afy because the guy who is holding the water rights  for “Painter” John is none other than his boss at the Cerro Montoso ranch on the west side of the Gorge. Oh, it’s so complicated with one set of interests in conflict with another. Besides, he’s got the votes.

The point here is less about all the conflicts of interest among the board members of EPWSD and their attorney Jim Brockman, who represents downstream municipalities than the double consciousness of the Abeyta et al signatories. They claim they want to satisfy Taos Pueblo’s desire to preserve the Buffalo Pasture, protect acequias and Mutual Domestic Water Consumer Associations (MDWCA), and historic Taos Valley Acequias as well as the Town of Taos and El Prado. The signatories  say they are all for cooperation and “custom,” sharing in shortages and surpluses, and all for agriculture and the preservation of Mother Nature.

Sure some Taosenos show up to celebrate both the Rio Grande Del Norte Monument and the protection of the Columbine Wilderness Area. And weren’t some members of Taos Pueblo as sympathetic to the return of Blue Lake and the preservation of the Buffalo Pasture and Wheeler Peak as they were to the Taos Pueblo Water Settlement because, after all, they have the rest of the community by the short hairs.

And doesn’t’ everyone give lip service to the notion that “aqua es vida?”

But the so-called movers and shakers, the good old boys, so called, really want these water rights so that they can serve residential, industrial, and big box growth. (I’m not saying its personal so much as its conventional:  grow or die.) You know, it’s all about jobs and preserving and protecting the water for Taos County. Here in Taos the EPSWD has promoted itself as the motor of the market and leased “main stem” (Rio Grande) water rights to the Northern Constructors so that the Town can expand the airport runway, while using its Abeyta/ Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) “test” well of some 1700 feet as a source, a source that could deplete the historic springs and aquifers that help replenish the Rio Grande itself. Painter is in competition with the fisherman and the farmers and the rafters.

A new extractive industry has arrived in Taos as deep aquifers are penetrated by new technology, featuring tools and augers that can drill down into the mysterious geologic layers for water, which could change forever the ways of the underground streams. While attorneys and hydrologists get the bulk of the work, the traditional view of nature as nurturer and object of disinterested desire has been transformed. Farmers, hunters, hikers, and fisherman may persist but, ironically, the signatories of Abeyta and its supporters are becoming agents for the newly minted “frackers.”

Never mind how long it took to fill the ancient aquifers or how long it will take to recharge them. According to Commissioner Blankenhorn, an attorney,  the 11 Abeyta hydrologists know best. The majority of the commissioners and Painter John frequently refer to the wisdom of the OSE, who, during water disputes, acts as judge, prosecutor, plaintiff, defendant, jury, and financier. If the OSE knows best, I’d like to sell you the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, suicide phones, and all. We are all wafting around in the wake of the “professionals.”

One of the foundations of the NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) concerns the effects of an action or project on the whole environment. But the OSE, like the Abeyta signatories and their supporters, has conveniently segmented the watersheds and resources and produced what amounts to a “shell game.” The complexity of the “shell game” involves residential wells, the Abeyta signatories, and a variety of “mitigation” or “underground storage” or “deep aquifer” water wells. Surface water, it turns out, is merely an illusion like paper water rights that documents “dry” water, which we were told was once “wet.” You’re right to be confused. That’s the goal of Abeyta.

Protesters are too late

At the hearing on EPWSD’s request to drop the protest, I saw three well-meaning Taosenos, who have come to the table too late because it’s a “done deal” as my friend Stella Gallegos said to me. She thinks her own neighborhood’s El Salto MDWCA was sold “down the river” by the Abeyta signatories, including its own chairman, due to the effects of “regionalization.” Regionalization is the new term for undermining local communities, based on ideas of “economic development” or “public safety” or “collaboration.” Regionalization is one of those buzz words aimed at undermining local sovereignty and la cultura by destroying it. Blankenhorn says he’s all for regionalization.

You could say El Valle de los Ranchos is a good example of “regionalization” although the Ranchos MDWCA is against it.

Politically speaking, Stella, Chris Pieper, and Bonne Korman, the latter who came not to speak but for the lesson, all showed up late, so typical of Los Taosenos. I didn’t say where were you when the Abeyta signatories gathered with Gov. Richardson at Taos Pueblo in 2006 in a very open and public photo op to celebrate the end of hostilities. Chris Pieper, whose analysis of basalt layers and the dangers of aquifer mining are well-taken but… the entire process began in 1969 (if not during the “conquest.”)

Similarly, the Airport protest has been through many manifestations since the late 80s even as the Cordova administration announced a deal with Taos Pueblo a few years ago. My old friend, the very private Ms. Bonnie Korman is one of the signatories on the lawsuit requesting an injunction against airport expansion. She saw at the meeting how Painter John’s deal for water rights with Charmin’ Joey of Northern Constructors, is jump-starting the project. Hence the Abeyta and Airport project can be seen as merging when viewed from above.

The view from above displays a distinct change in attitude toward the natural world, a world seen less as one that sustains life or as an object of desire but more realistically as an object of exploitation whether for tourists or water mining and development. Let’s be honest: El Prado is seen as the motor for the development of the Highway 64 corridor from the Airport all the way back to historic El Prado at the edge of the Buffalo Pasture.

Of course, I should not fail to mention that a minority or two commissioners, Candyce O’Donnell and Gabe Romero, voted to maintain the protest against EPWSD’s movida. Commissioner Fambro, a Town of Taos townie, voted with Blankenhorn. Commissioner Mark Gallegos, the Mayor of Questa, voted to join the good old boys in Taos County, aligning his perspective on the future with theirs. The former mayor of Questa, Esther Garcia said she was against the El Prado transfer and her parciantes were protesting.

Tentative Conclusion

You might say that Mother Nature is out and economic development is in with respect to an “organizing principle” for the future, despite the lip service given to agriculture, TCDC or various wilderness areas and monuments and acequia traditions. In the Town, unless Judi acts, we are stuck with Manager Bellis’s resume re: “regionalization”: regional airport, regional water systems, regional planning. My real problem with this utopian notion of regionalization per Bellis  is that it all adds up to more talk and less action. I can’t take seriously “regionalization” in my lifetime, due to Taosenos’ history of movida making and passion for confrontation: if you believe in regionalization, then “you are not from here.”

But the times change and we must change with it.

In effect, I would have more confidence in a “regional” vision if the Mayor and Manager paid more attention to the preservation of the Town and the property belonging to private citizens.  While the good old boys have got their eyes on private jets above and playing shell games with Painter below, ugly metal signs are popping up like potholes below, marring the historic view above and playing havoc with our shock absorbers below. The aim of life should be peace of mind, not more controversy and flat tires.

Some things never change.