The Acequia Governance Handbook is the result of a collective effort on the part of many acequia parciantes and supporters with expertise in acequias, water rights, and local governance. It is also a work in progress.
The themes identified as sections in the Handbook resulted from acequia meetings around New Mexico. Our acequia community meetings are participatory with everyone sharing some part of their knowledge about acequias. Since 2002, over fifty regional meetings, workshops, and listening sessions were held in addition to hundreds of individual acequia meetings during which NMAA staff and volunteers learned and shared vital information about acequia governance. The current version of the Acequia Governance Handbook contains the some of the key areas that are of interest to parciantes based on the information shared at our many meetings. A revised version is forthcoming which will include more information about acequia history, customs and traditions, and current issues facing acequias.
In our current version, the first section contains a brief Introduction to Water Rights. This provides a basic overview of water rights in New Mexico from an acequia perspective. The second section contains an Acequia Bylaws Template and an Acequia Bylaws Checklist. Every acequia is unique and its bylaws should reflect that uniqueness while also adhering to some basic requirements of state law. The Template provides a good framework for adopting or amending acequia bylaws and is only intended to serve as a guideline. Finally, there are several appendices that provide more detail about specific areas of acequia governance including Water Transfers, Water Banking, Open Meetings Act, Acequia Enforcement, and Acequia Easements.
This Handbook was produced as part of the Water Governance Program of the New Mexico Acequia Association under a contract with the Local Government Division, Department of Finance and Administration of the State of New Mexico, which was made possible by funding support from the New Mexico State Legislature.
Part of the Water Governance Program is also to provide Technical Assistance to acequias on any of the topics covered in this Handbook. Technical Assistance is provided by the New Mexico Acequia Association in partnership with New Mexico Legal Aid. For information about these services, please contact NMAA at 995-9644 or NMLA at 1-800-373-9881.
The Acequia Governance Handbook is dedicated to the memory of
Paul Garcia and Geoff Bryce who served tirelessly as leaders of the
New Mexico Acequia Association.
Acequia Handbook Introduction
Acequia Bylaws Template
Appendix A. Acequia Water Transfer Bylaw
Appendix B. Acequia Water Banking Bylaw
Handout 1. Open Meetings Act
Handout 2. Acequia Enforcement Guidelines
Handout 3. Acequia Easements