Democratic Sen. Leo Jaramillo (center) from Española joins irrigators and acequia managers in a march around the New Mexico Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
Mayordomos and other acequia advocates from across New Mexico gathered at the Roundhouse on Tuesday, carrying shovels and signs calling on lawmakers to expand a recurring stream of funding for the historic waterways.
New Mexico has more than 700 of the vital irrigation channels, and recent wildfires and other disasters have caused millions of dollars of damage to them far beyond what lawmakers have approved so far.
Specifically, acequias will need $68 million in the coming decades to fix damage caused by disasters or harden against future ones, according to a recent rough estimate. To that end, the New Mexico Acequia Association is pushing House Bill 330, which would create a recurring infrastructure fund for acequias and land grants.
You can read more here about what acequia leaders are seeking this session.
Association Director Paula Garcia told Source New Mexico in a phone interview Tuesday that the extra funding is vital amid federal delays in funding acequia restoration and even freezes. Her association had a $200,000 “equity in conservation” grant from the National Resource Conservation Service it used to provide technical assistance to acequias in Lincoln and Rio Arriba counties, which were affected by fires and floods last year.
The grant was frozen, Garcia said, probably due to some kind of “misunderstanding that it had to do with diversity.” It was a major source of funding for the small nonprofit, she said.
In fact, “We used that funding to help everybody,” she said. “For under-served, rural areas.”
Approximately 75 acequias sustained damage in the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, and Garcia estimated that 10 of them, at most, had received the major construction they needed to repair from past damage or prepare for future floods.
Around the time the acequia demonstration occurred Tuesday, lawmakers in the House Agriculture, Acequias and Water Resources Committee were hearing a bill allowing the funding of the Strategic Water Supply.
Lawmakers narrowly approved the bill, which would approve up to $75 million to be spent as the state creates a market for the sale of treated brackish and produced water.
Garcia said her association has not taken a position on the strategic water supply, but she did share some concerns that she’s brought to the attention of the bill’s sponsors. For one, she’s concerned that brackish water more than 2,500 feet below the surface isn’t subject to the same water rights application process as water closer to the surface.
She is also seeking assurances that no produced water will be granted a discharge permit that would allow it to flow into rivers or farmers’ fields via acequias. Proponents have repeatedly said no such permits would be allowed.
“It’s a very significant leap in the way water management is being handled in New Mexico, so it should be done very carefully,” she said.
Bill watch
The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation unanimously approved the Medical Psilocybin Act, which would create a program for New Mexicans to establish a program for medicinal use of psilocybin mushrooms.
The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee in the afternoon voted unanimously in favor of Rep. Marian Matthews’ House Bill 111, which would require first responders in emergencies to make a “reasonable effort” to find qualified service animals if they are missing.
The committee also approved a proposal that would strengthen New Mexico’s protections for journalists from unfair subpoenas by state government officials.