6/25/09
Over 60 people from around the world attended Dixon’s second annual Celebrando las Acequias June 13 at Mission Embudo. The event educated neophytes about acequia traditions, and introduced old-timers to the concept of water banking.
“We haven’t taken care of the acequias,” local historian and event organizer Estevan Arellano said. “Acequias were the roads of the village but now they’re clogged up. People fence right up to the acequia, (leaving) no easement for workers. People are placing fences across acequias. Even parciantes within the ditch don’t understand traditional use.”
El Llano Acequia parciante Scott Valdez said as economic forces continue to pull young people away from Dixon, water banking should be the community’s number one concern. By formally placing unused water rights in reserve for use by other parciantes, individual members and the entire acequia can retain water rights that would otherwise be lost, Valdez said.
“If we lose water rights, it depletes water rights for all parciantes,” Valdez said.
Among the attendees were architecture students from Woodbury University’s Arid Lands Institute in Burbank, Calif.
The 17 students and two professors planned to stay in Dixon for a week to study the acequia system, Professor Peter Arnold said.
“Water is central to sustainable design,” Arnold said. “We teach built environments, not just building architecture. Every summer for the past 10 years, we’ve looked at water in arid environments.”
This year, students studied archeological irrigation systems in the ruins of Chaco Canyon and Goat Hill, Ariz. before coming to Dixon to see a living traditional irrigation system, Arnold said.
“Los Angeles faces the same problems as here — water scarcity and destructive flooding,” Arnold said.
While in Dixon, the students will not just tour the acequia, Arnold said. They’ll also pitch in.
“We’re looking at arroyos, rebuilding Civilian Conservation Corps check dams to mitigate floods along the acequias, and helping clean and do minor repair work,” Arnold said.
The students will also provide survey-quality maps of the acequia to help parciantes prepare for future adjudication of their water rights, Arnold said.
The visiting students are from all over the world and speak several languages, including Chinese, Arabic and Spanish, Arnold said.
Lebanese student Ali Alawar said he was intrigued by the Arab roots of the acequia system.
“Water is a shared and equal opportunity to all,” Alawar said. “Acequias have Spanish and Arabic roots.”
Educating Newcomers
New Mexico Acequia Association Executive Director Paula Garcia hosted discussions on water banking and ditch easements — much-needed educational opportunities for new residents, according to Embudo apple grower Clovis Romero.
“Newcomers don’t understand right of ways,” Romero said.
Some newer residents also like the lush but invasive vegetation that grows along ditches.
“Some people are against cutting willows and Chinese elms, but they’re sucking up water,” Arellano said.
Preserving water and water rights amid the decline of traditional agriculture was another major topic for discussion.
“After the (Los Alamos National Laboratory was built), people started to work for wages and had money for food,” Arellano said. “Land wasn’t as important. People don’t relate acequias and land to food security anymore. A lot of people use water rights for one or two-acre lawns. They don’t realize that’s not a beneficial use and the state can come and say we need that water for uses other than lawns.”