Taos Water Wars: Shots Fired, Dialogue Begins

Editor’s Note. Although we have had some fun at the expense of the Mayor of Potholes and the stubborn Town of Taos Manager Bellis, whose concept of “act and inform” seems contrary to best practices, the water issues in Taos County are far more serious and should be the first priority on elected leaders’ minds. If we Taosenos and our visitors wish to maintain the historic preservation of community we must do more than drive down to the Maxwell Museum and look at an acequia exhibit or wait for part of the exhibit to travel up to the Historic County Courthouse during Fall Arts.

On Tuesday night at the Chicano Symposium, representatives of the historic movements, made famous by Cesar Chavez (Si Se Puede) and Corky Gonzales (Crusade for Justice) at the Courthouse on the Plaza, alluded to the coming battles to preserve the acequia culture. One of the veterans of the movement, a female battle star from El Norte, warned the audience of “cronyism.”

The solo defenders of the Spring Ditch in the Town are victims of this very Abeyta/TVAA/Town of Taos cronyism. The valiant parciantes refused to sign away their constitutional rights to due process and rejected the Abeyta agreement. When it comes to aqua es vida, neither your primos nor your vecinos nor your politicos, like Painter and Palemon, can be trusted .

In yesterday’s post the editor of Taos Friction made some rambunctious remarks about Abeyta and Top of the World Transfers per the County and Comissioner Blankenhorn. Below, the Taos County Commissioner replies. Regardless of where you stand, the dialogue is extremely important, the subject fraught with complexity.

From the desk of Tom Blankenhorn

The transfer of water rights from the Gallagher Ranch and parts of TOW (Top of the World), north of Questa to the El Prado Water and Sanitation District is not an inter-basin transfer. The water rights from the north of Questa were established when wells were drilled some 60 years ago and the water was used to irrigate farms. Those wells took water directly from the immense underground Rio Grande re-charge flows located between the Colorado State Line and Cerro. (BTW, those shallow wells had ill effects on all surface water in the area)

If the change in the point of divergence from north of Questa to west of El Prado is approved by the State Engineer, the water will be diverted from deep wells, also connected to the Rio Grande. Although the connection to the Rio Grande will be less direct because of the greater depth of the new wells, the source of water will still be main stem Rio Grande water located within the same basin as those formerly taken from relatively shallow wells north of Questa.

The Taos County Commission represents the people of Taos County. There is no back-pedaling in a decision to not oppose an intra county transfer of water rights and to then oppose a transfer out of County; no matter how many times you mistakenly repeat it. Also, I wouldn’t be too concerned about our legal department’s ability to make a good public policy argument against transferring water rights out of Taos County into Santa Fe County should the Commission vote to file an opposition.

Editorial Department’s Response

Inter basin transfers of water rights (from one watershed to another watershed) only bring new water use at the “transfer to point.”

In areas such as Taos County where all water rights and natural stream flows are fully and in most cases over-appropriated this means the new use will diminish all other existing water rights and water uses whether surface or ground water.

Therefore when the commission supports the new use from an inter-basin transfer to any where, whether in Taos County or out of Taos County, the effect hurts, impairs, or diminishes the existing water rights and uses on that stream and watershed. In terms of the environment, everything is connected, hence the concept of conjunctive effects wherein ground water affects surface water and vice versa, especially on streams and acequias. The earth is permeable and has a reflexive relationship with soil and water.

Therefore when the commission stands with a new water use (transfer to point) it then stands against all other existing water uses, including the Public Welfare of existing uses, which depends on a limited and definitive water supply.

Furthermore in an area with the most abundant stream flow i.e. the Rio Grande, why would the county, as a matter of public policy, chose to use the oldest and least sustainable water on which to base future development as is the case with El Prado Water and Sanitation District’s deep wells. This water can be considered “fossil water,” very likely generated by the Blue Lake and Rio Lucero watershed basins more than a century ago. But today there are very different precipitation rates and deep underground aquifer recharge rates. The new weather patterns will not refill deep aquifers to compensate for the accelerated rate of pumping. We are using up our savings account.

Using the county’s water savings bank as like an on demand debit card or checking account, money or water spent to sustain growth. “In water terms” this is not “smart growth” but to the contrary, willfully “ignorant growth.” The policy adopts the quarterly profit model of Corporate America, which has done so much for the short term profits of bankers as goals while ignoring the long term effects on the economy, the populace in general, and the natural world, which is the ultimate water resource. Talk about “county drying up.”

Commissioner Blankenhorn might mean well but his knowledge of New Mexico water law suggests a short-sighted interpretation about which we all will learn much in the coming months during the “water wars.” We call on all Taosenos, especially parciantes and elected officials to give more than lip service to the issues: study the documents, open your eyes.

Mirabile Dictu, Taos had an average winter re: precipitation. We are far better off than the drought and desertification coming now to the Sierra Nevada in California and Nevada. But we need to work together. We hope our friends in the El Prado Water and Sanitation District wake up and reign in water maven John Painter, who willfully and greedily ignores our vecinos in Questa as well as trout fishers on the main stem Rio Grande. Taosenos need to stand together against downstream raiders, thirsting after our water, the ones led by the shark-in-chief attorney Jim Brockman, who is employed by El Prado and has shown Painter “the way of the dark side.”

The down-streamers have more money than we do but nobody likes a fight better than la gente de Taos. Even Rip Van Winkle at Town Hall will wake up one day. Maybe he’ll find water in the deeper potholes.