[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 12, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5182-S5183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  A MILESTONE FOR NEW MEXICO ACEQUIAS

 Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, since my early days as a Senator, 
I have worked with Northern New Mexicans who have irrigated apple 
orchards, chile crops, beans, and other subsistence commodities by 
using a unique system of irrigation that is native to New Mexico's high 
desert plateaus of the Rocky Mountains. For hundreds of years, 
Hispanics have channeled Rio Grande River water for their crops through 
a complex system of ditches. I first started working with these 
``acequia'' associations in 1976, when we first brought their needs to 
the attention of the Bureau of Reclamation.
  Water from the Rio Grande River has been carefully syphoned off to 
provide a basis for Hispanic life and culture for centuries. The annual 
rituals of cleaning, operating, and sharing this precious water have 
become an integral part of northern New Mexico's cultural life. 
Irrigators have formed alliances and cooperative agreements to meet the 
many water needs of the area. ``Acequias,'' as they are known in 
Spanish, are the irrigation ditches that have given rise to centuries 
of critical life support systems.
  Much of the beauty of cottonwood trees and apple orchards between 
Espanola and Taos was created by these man-made acequias. In addition 
to watering the orchards and fields, the acequias are a vital source of 
precious water for the old trees that also live off this water system.

[[Page S5183]]

  The historic value of this system of cooperative watering is well 
known in northern New Mexico. In fact, when the acequia associations 
and I agreed to improve this system, our suggestions were resisted by 
State of New Mexico agencies on the grounds that concrete lining, for 
example, would alter the historic value of these acequias.
  Of course, the state agency did not want to help with the expensive 
and frequent repairs and annual maintenance. They wanted the 
subsistence farmers to do this themselves, at their own expense.
  Working with Las Nueve Acequias Steering Committee, and their 
excellent Chairman Wilfred Gutierrez, we are now celebrating a quarter 
century of overcoming bureaucratic barriers and making real 
improvements to this vast system of acequias. In the past twenty five 
years, I have been able to convince my colleagues in the Senate of the 
value of acequias to the economy and culture of northern New Mexico.
  The Congress has been accepting of my proposals. At my urging, the 
Congress authorized a special program to make the needed physical 
improvements to acequias, while maintaining the traditional cooperative 
relationships. The traditional leader of an acequia is the 
``mayordomo.'' Mike Martinez, the current mayordomo of the Chicos ditch 
in Velarde was on hand to christen the latest section of improvements 
in late April. This event was a milestone that marks a quarter century 
of a vital partnership with the federal government to keep these 
acequias operable for the next century.
  We are still a couple of years away from completing $30 million worth 
of improvements in the Velarde area of New Mexico. Miles of acequias 
have been greatly improved in the past quarter century. I have been 
fortunate to have the support of my colleagues for many appropriations 
over all these years. In gratitude for the consistent support of my 
colleagues for funding these acequia projects, I would like them to see 
the attached newspaper article from the Rio Grande Sun, May 6, 1999, by 
Cynthia Miller, entitled, ``After 25 Years, Acequia Project Finally 
Finished''. This article gives us important insights into the value of 
the acequias to thousands of northern New Mexicans. After a quarter 
century of improvements, the acequia users and associations can 
continue to rely on this essential source of water for their 
lifestyles, and their livelihood.
  I ask that this article be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

                 [From the Rio Grande Sun, May 6, 1999]

            After 25 Years, Acequia Project Finally Finished

                          (By Cynthia Miller)

       When the Chicos ditch in Velarde was opened April 28 during 
     a ceremony to celebrate the completion of 3000 feet of 
     improvement work, Las Nueve Acequias Steering Committee 
     Chairman Wilfred Gutierrez said he witnessed not only the one 
     ditch's progress that day, but also the past 25 years of 
     progress on a $20 million federal project covering nine 
     ditches in the area.
       The 3000 feet of concrete piping from a Rio Grande dam up 
     the Chicos marks one of the last stages of the project, 
     Gutierrez said, estimating $15 million in federal funds has 
     been spent on the project so far.
       He said the ditch was christened by acequia mayordomo Mike 
     Martinez and several federal Bureau of Reclamation officials 
     who gathered April 28 to watch as water was released from the 
     newly lined dam for the first time this spring.
       The pricey nine-ditch project was initiated in the 1970s, 
     Gutierrez said, when residents of Velarde and surrounding 
     communities rebelled against a $28 million federal plan to 
     build a canal from the Rio Grande to the Santa Cruz River.
       The group successfully stopped the canal from going in and 
     the community's irrigation water supply from going out, he 
     said, and then members got some ideas of their own. ``People 
     started asking me why couldn't we use some of that money to 
     rehabilitate our acequias?''
       Gutierrez said the farmers in the area were always putting 
     time, money and labor into rebuilding dams and ditches which 
     were washed away by heavy river flows, and fixing spots where 
     muskrats, crawfish and other wildlife dug holes.
       Rather then constantly rebuild the acequias just to see 
     them destroyed again, the community members wanted to improve 
     the ditches in a way that would be more permanent and would 
     require less strenuous maintenance efforts, he said.
       In 1976 officers from the nine acequias organized into the 
     Las Nueve Acequias Steering Committee and asked Gutierrez to 
     serve as chairman, he said. The group then sought U.S. Sen. 
     Pete Domenici's help in securing Bureau of Reclamation funds 
     for their ditch improvement projects.
       Following a Bureau of Reclamation feasibility study around 
     1980, he said, it was determined that the work would cost 
     about $20 million. Funds began to come in and plans were made 
     to get started.
       The first and most crucial phase was to build new dams, 
     Gutierrez said. ``Before that, it was just the old ones that 
     the Spanish and the Indians built. Literally, we were just 
     washing money down the river.''
       With each heavy rain, he said, the dams just washed away 
     and had to be rebuilt.
       Seven new permanent dams were built by Las Nueve Acequias 
     and the Bureau of Reclamation to replace the nine previous 
     dams, he said, and then work was started on lining ditches 
     and creating other structures.
       He explained the group is set up so that each ditch has its 
     own officers to make decisions on what work it wants done.
       ``What's nice about this project is that it's up to the 
     people in the acequias to determine what they want. They have 
     to make the request,'' he said, adding he has served from the 
     start as an at-large representative of the steering 
     committee.
       He represents no individual acequia, he said, and works 
     instead for the good of all nine.
       Part of his work has included overcoming obstacles standing 
     in the way of ditch improvements, such as the state 
     Environment Department and the state Game and Fish 
     Department's objections to ditch work, Gutierrez said.
       The departments wanted the ditches to remain in their more 
     natural states.
       ``They wanted the acequias to exist like before, but they 
     didn't realize how expensive it was. And they didn't want to 
     help fix them,'' he said. ``They wanted the acequia groups to 
     be burdened with the expense of keeping the acequias as they 
     had existed.''
       Gutierrez said he was glad to see the project is nearing 
     its completion.
       ``When we started it, we thought we could finish it in 
     eight years,'' he said, ``and it's taken 25. . . . We'd like 
     to finish this project in the next two years.''
       Gutierrez said Las Nueve Acequias has plans to do more work 
     on its ditches this fall.

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