New Mexico Acequia Association

During the months of May and June, Mora youth followed the traditions of their families and branded cattle, took their cattle to the sierra, and planted their gardens. On May 6th, with snow flurries falling throughout the morning, youth members DJ Duran, Josh Rivera, Diana Carrillo, LeAn Pino, Rory Pino, Christina Garcia, along with mentor Harold Trujillo planted nearly 400 pounds of four varieties of potatoes in LeDoux. They also helped Paula Garcia plant nine heritage fruit trees in Mora: three apple, three pear, and three cherry. Throughout May and early June, youth assisted their own families with branding. On June 3rd, Rory, Anna, and LeAn helped Antonio Medina, Marino Rivera, and Diego Rivera brand cattle in Encinal and take them to the sierra. Afterward, they planted their own garden at Paula’s in Mora.

The New Mexico Acequia Association will co-sponsor the Northern New Mexico Farm Bill Forum on Sunday, July 8th. The purpose of the forum is to mobilize support for increased support for small-scale and minority farmers such as traditional Hispano and Native American farmers and for rural community development.

Northern New Mexico Farm Bill Forum

Northern New Mexico College

Sunday, July 8th, 2007, 2:00pm - 5:00pm

Refreshments will be served.

The event is co-sponsored by, along with NMAA, Rio Arriba County, Northern New Mexico College, NMSU Cooperative Extension, the American Friends Service Committee, Northern New Mexico Stockmans Association, and the Traditional Native American Farmers’ Association. The NMAA is in contact with national organizations advocating for a more equitable farm bill that addresses the needs of small-scale producers.

The Farm Bill is a complex, omnibus bill reauthorized by Congress every five years. The next reauthorization is due on September 21st. Many organizations who advocate for family farmers, access to healthy food for the poor, and rural communities have organized national campaigns to push for farm bill reform. The New Mexico Acequia Association by helping to organize the Northern New Mexico Farm Bill forum is hoping to mobilize support from New Mexico for some national policy initiatives that could benefit rural communities. One objective of the Forum is to bring together community leaders to formulate a policy agenda to deliver to the New Mexico Congressional Delegation.

For more information about the Farm Bill, follow the following links:

House Committee on Agriculture

United States Department of Agriculture Farm Bill

Rural Coalition - Diversity Initiative

Food and Farm Policy Project

Campaign for Renewed Rural Development

National Catholic Rural Life Conference

The latest update on the status on the Farm Bill (from the NCRLC e-newsletter):

KEEPING UP WITH THE U.S. FARM BILL as of June 25

A House Agriculture subcommittee voted to extend the 2002 farm bill’s commodity title rather than make the changes in target prices and loan rates that some legislators had proposed. Many civil society groups following the Farm Bill, including faith, rural development and environmental groups, had advocated for meaningful reforms in the new Farm Bill. Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson said changes are still expected when the full committee holds its markup after the July Fourth recess. This gives the House Agriculture committee a few extra weeks to prepare for the next votes on the bill.

House leadership has pushed back the farm bill’s estimated floor time to the week of July 23; they will try to move on the delayed spending bills before then. Agriculture Chairman Peterson said the extra time would give him more time to find offsets for spending increases in the new Farm Bill. Peterson expects a full Agriculture committee vote the week of July 9.

NMAA leaders will participate in the US Social Forum in Atlanta, Georgia, the motto of which is “another world is possible, another United States is necessary.” The forum will be a space for networking, relationship-building, and inspiration for community leaders from throughout the US. Between June 27 and July 1, the forum will include events, panels, plenaries, and actions and will culminate in a People’s Assembly of social movements on the last day. NMAA will present on the following two panels:

Water for People, Not for Profit! Grassroots Activists tell their Victory Stories

3:30 PM in Mediterranean room at the Atlanta Marriott Downtown

Food & Water Watch

The global movement to protect water for people and nature—not for profit—is one of the most vibrant and inspiring social movements today. Here in the U.S., we have our fair share of success stories. This workshop will feature inspiring stories of victory from states like New Mexico, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, while also equipping participants with the tools to win.

Defending Our Water and Protecting Our Food: Bringing Family Farmers and Water Rights Advocates Together

10:30 AM in Apollo room at the Atlanta Marriott Downtown

Peoples Health Movement & Alliance for Democracy

This panel, developed in collaboration with a national coalition of water rights advocates, will explore the interactions between food security and water security from several perspectives, and offer models for action to protect these public goods.

For a list of the rural issue panels, see USSF Rural Issue Panels.

For more information about the US Social Forum, click here.

On June 13, Martin Luther King III spent a day visiting Chimayo and Truchas as part of the Poverty Across America tour to raise awareness about poverty in the US.  In the link to the article from the New Mexican, he comments on the uniqueness of acequias and on the lack of potable water in villages near Chimayo.  For more info, click on the link.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/63119.html

The Water and Natural Resources Legislative Interim Committee met on Tuesday, June 12 at the State Capitol in Santa Fe.  Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, Senator Phil Griego, Committee Chairman, and Senator Carlos Cisneros all commented that acequias should be part of the committee work plan which defines the agenda items for the committee during the legislative interim. 

Senator Cisneros requested specifically that the issue of water transfers from Taos County to south of Otowi gage be an issue studied by the committee.  Several years ago, he passed a legislative memorial asking the State Engineer to formalize a policy of not allowing transfers from northern New Mexico across Otowi gage, which is the measuring point for determining compact deliveries to Texas.  The State Engineer historically has not allowed transfers from north to south of the gage because such transfers would complicate administration of the Rio Grande Compact.  The gage has acted as a de facto protection of northern New Mexico from demands from the most rapidly urbanizing part of the state in central New Mexico including Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Rio Rancho.  Cisneros asked that the committee study the issues surrounding Otowi gage mentioning that large water right owners in Taos County were considering marketing their water rights out of Taos County to areas south of the gage. 

Cisneros also asked the committee to study the Active Water Management Regulations (AWRM) pointing out that District Court Judge Reynolds had ruled major portions of the regulations unconstitutional.  The AWRM sets forth administrative rules for administering stream systems through priority administration with or without a completed adjudication and allows for “expedited markets,” which allow expedite water transfers by circumventing due process.  The NMAA has opposed the provisions that provide for expedited markets and has raised concerns about the OSE making administrative determinations of water rights.

Senator Griego and Speaker Lujan asked several questions about the status of the Acequia Construction Program of the Interstate Stream Commission.  Lujan asked whether the Irrigation Works Construction Fund would have enough funds to meet the needs of the acequia program over the long term.  Senator Griego asked if there was a way for acequias to receive better services from the program.

State Engineer John D’Antonio and Estevan Lopez presented and responded to questions for nearly four hours.  The highlights of the presentation in relation to acequias were as follows:

• The OSE has seven priority basis for implementation of AWRM.  In those basins, the OSE has yet to promulgate basin-specific regulations or to complete a water master manual.
• The OSE received recurring funding to pay for ten (10) new water master positions and intends to appoint them shortly after July. 
• With regard to compacts, New Mexico has accumulated the maximum number of credits toward the state’s obligations to deliver water to Texas. 
• The OSE will establish a pre-adjudication bureau in the Middle Rio Grande where they plan to begin issuing licenses for water rights.  It is not clear how the OSE will deal with pre-1907 water rights in the Middle Rio Grande nor how he would proceed to license thousands of surface water rights. 
• The OSE reported that three major Indian Water Rights Settlements had been signed including the Navajo, Aamodt (Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, and Tesuque), and Taos.  He reported the total cost of the settlements was $1.2 billion. 

The New Mexico Acequia Association in written and oral comments to the committee asked that the following topics be addressed during the interim:

• An Acequia Perspective on AWRM and Adjudication
• Implications of Indian Water Rights Settlements for Acequias
• Water Markets and Water Transfers
• Acequia-Domestic Water Working Group Recommendations

The next committee meeting in northern New Mexico will be in Taos on August 28th and 29th. 

On July 24th, NMAA will host a workshop for acequias who are interesting in developing an Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan.  The purpose of the ICIP planning process is to help local governments develop 5-year planning timelines for improving infrastructure including identification of infrastructure priorities and possible funding sources.  The Local Government Division of the Department of Finance and Administration highly encourages local governments to complete an ICIP prior to requesting Capital Outlay appropriations from their legislators.

The workshop will take place on July 24th in Santa Fe at the State Capitol from 9am through 12 noon.  For more information about the workshop call the NMAA office at 995-9644 or contact Janice Varela directly at 231-7752 or organizer@lasacequias.org.

For acequias who are seeking information about a current construction project already funded, contact Ray Acosta at the Interstate Stream Commission at 1-800-WATERNM.  The ISC staff will provide information about how to access your capital outlay funds including compliance with certain requirements of state government and developing a work agreement, or contract, between the ISC and your acequia.

Episode 20 of ¡Que Vivan las Acequias!

We continue listening to proceedings from the 2nd Annual Tierra, Agua, y Cultura conference, “Las Mujeres Hablan: Women, Seeds, and Agriculture,” on March 17, 2007. This conference was organized in collaboration with the New Mexico Acequia Association, the Traditional Native American Farmers’ Association, Tewa Women United, and Honor our Pueblo Existence. In this episode you will hear from a panel entitled, “Caring for the Human seed-raising children on the land,” with presenters:

- Michele Peixino of Chimayo.

- Teofista & Marisela Chavez of Taos area.

- and Margaret Campos of Embudo.
This month’s music is by El Chicano. Theme music by Cipriano Vigil.

Download episode: 20quevivan.mp3

Sembrando Semillas members Toribio Garcia (Peñasco), Angel Martinez (Taos), Diane Carillo (Mora), and Samantha Mascareñas (North Taos County) (pictured, left to right), participate in the 5th annual New Mexico Civic Engagement Summer Institute ‘07. This is the 3rd year of Sembrando Semillas sending a delegation to NMCE with Toribio Garicia and Angel Martinez being our 3rd year veteranos. Angel did a digital storytelling piece last year at NMCE ‘06 that was used in this year’s storyboarding training. Toribio also started his digital storytelling piece entitled “How My Family Makes Chicos.” He later made a 2nd edition that earned him 2nd place and a $100 at the ¡ESE! Film Festival. New Mexico Civic Engagement has been a chance for us to interact with youth groups from all over the State that have different issues they want to fix in their communities.
Props to the team for representing!