Officials report at least 30 NM acequias suffered millions in damage in recent floods - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Rainstorms last month in Northern New Mexico damaged several dozen acequias, many of them severely, according to an advocacy group concerned that without state or federal help, farmers who rely on the ancient irrigation canals will lose at least two growing seasons.
At least 36 acequias in Taos, Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties sustained damage in three storms last month, according to Vidal Gonzales, policy and planning for the New Mexico Acequia Association. He told Source New Mexico on Tuesday evening that most of the damage came from two storms Aug. 25 and Aug. 29.
All told, 19 acequias in the Chimayó area, along with six near Pojoaque and 11 others near Ojo Caliente, sustained several millions of dollars in damage in the powerful rainstorms, he said.
The storms created floods that poured into the channels, generating enough pressure to crack metal headgates. Debris flows elsewhere left acequias full of silt that will have to be dug out before they can flow again, he said. Others may have to be rebuilt, he said.
“Some of them got blown out just from such a high-intensity rain event in such a short amount of time,” Gonzales said, who shared pictures of the damage.
Acequias leaders, known as mayordomos, have shared damage assessments with the Acequia Association in recent days, as the organization begins advocating for county or state disaster declarations that would unlock some funding, Gonzales said. The group hopes to compile all that information for Rio Arriba and Santa Fe county officials this week, he said.
But even if Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham were to approve a state declaration, which would mean at least $750,000, Gonzales said he’s unsure where the rest of the money will come from.
While a federal disaster declaration could provide needed individual assistance and help to public entities like acequas, “I don’t see that happening with this administration,” Gonzales said.
Other federal agencies, like the Emergency Watershed Protection Program or the Natural Resources Conservation Service, are short-staffed and overwhelmed, he said, with other disaster projects and spending cuts. And state funds the Legislature passed specifically for acequias earlier this year have already been allocated, primarily to small projects or engineering and design.
Gonzales attributes the severity of the floods to human-caused climate change, he said, along with longstanding watershed degradation that will require a multi-faceted approach to address.
“We’re really between a rock and a hard place here in New Mexico with all these disasters and climate change and everything affecting us,” he said.
The storms mark just the latest natural event to damage the historic irrigation canals, which are largely unique to New Mexico. The association earlier this year estimated that 150 acequias were damaged due to recent wildfires, particularly due to post-fire flooding, in northern and southern New Mexico.
The Legislature in recent years has approved more than $100 million in disaster loans, including for specific acequias, to help them start recovering, but they often face bureaucratic challenges, including becoming designated public entities eligible for federal or state disaster assistance.
Mykel Diaz, mayordomo of the Acequia de los Martinez Arriba near Chimayó, told Source that he’s already encountered some of those challenges for his acequia, because it runs over the boundary of Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties. That’s making the damage assessment difficult, he said, along with other hurdles.
He told Source that the flood damage has affected basically the entire Santa Cruz River Valley, including several major acequias. His acequia has slightly over 100 users — or parciantes — he said, and the Distrito Community Ditch nearby has about 200.
Both suffered severe damage that will cost tens of thousands of dollars, at least, he said.
The acequia Diaz oversees lost basically an entire mile-long stretch due to 20 “avalanches” that dumped into it during the Aug. 29 storm, he said. For acequias that have been in that area for several hundred years, seeing one storm wipe so much out demonstrates “the fragility of the system,” he said.
“It just took one epic rainstorm that put two inches of rain in like an hour,” he said, “and took us out.”
Diaz’s acequia has some money to at least begin digging out, he said, which is a rarity among acequias. But he’ll need to convince parciantes to approve moving $10,000 they recently approved for a new diversion project toward recovering from the disaster.
“If we don’t re-allocate that money, then we’re not going to have any water to divert,” she said. “It’ll be a futile project.”
For other required spending, Diaz said he just hopes that the acequia will somehow be reimbursed for the “freak of nature” storm.
“Mother Nature really gave it to us that day,” he said.
TEDxABQ returns this month after three-year hiatus - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
TEDx, the popular speaker series modeled after TED talks, will return to Albuquerque Sept. 27 after a three-year hiatus.
Twelve speakers will present on a range of topics, from science and technology to hospitality and art, at TEDxABQ’s event later this month.
Albuquerque was one of the first 30 cities globally to be licensed to hold TEDx events around 15 years ago, said organizer Alex Andrego Adams. TEDxABQ went dormant in 2019, though the organizers held a TEDxABQ event in 2022 in an attempt to resurrect the series.
“We were hoping that it was going to take off after that, but it didn’t,” Andrego Adams said.
Andrego Adams said she and TEDxABQ curator Meghan Pickard sought to revive the event for a new, modern audience.
“She and I got together and said that it would be such a shame to let TEDxABQ kind of fizzle away,” Andrego Adams said. “We both really believed that it brought a lot to Albuquerque, and we both got a lot personally from it.”
Unlike in years past, when the internet was still novel, Andrego Adams said she thinks the value of this year’s event is the sense of in-person community. The event this month at the Electric Playhouse on Albuquerque’s West Side will be held in a theater-in-the-round with the audience on all sides, instead of the traditional TED format of presenters in an auditorium.
“This year, we are really playing with the environment and the immersion factor,” she said.
TEDxABQ organizers narrowed down the speakers from a pool of around 200 applicants, Andrego Adams said. Among the speakers are plus-size influencer Jen McLellan, who will present on weight bias in health care, and 10-year-old Eulises Crespo, who will give a talk on curiosity and activism.
Gail Rubin, a death and grief educator, will give her second TEDxABQ talk at the event this month.
“I did my first one in 2015 in Popejoy Hall, in front of 1,200 people. And here we are, 10 years later, after the pandemic and the local program went into hibernation for a while, now they’re back with this year’s events,” Rubin said.
This year, Rubin’s presentation will be on medically-assisted death, which is legal in New Mexico, she said. Though Rubin does speaking engagements across the state, she said the TEDxABQ event is exciting for her, because the presentations will go online on the TEDxTalks YouTube channel.
“That’s huge, because not only will I be educating the people in the room when I give that talk, but it will be preserved and shared online,” Rubin said.
Rubin said she’ll be wearing a new pair of pink metallic boots with skulls embroidered on them, in keeping with the theme of her presentation.
“Anything with a skull or a skeleton on it, it’s a business expense,” she said.
Ruling allows City Council candidates Telles, Garcia to remain on the ballot - Olivier Uyttebrouck, Albuquerque Journal
Two Albuquerque City Council candidates will remain on the Nov. 4 ballot following a judge’s ruling that led to the dismissal of two lawsuits against them, attorneys involved in the cases said Tuesday.
The lawsuits alleged that District 1 candidate Stephanie Telles and District 3 candidate Teresa Garcia failed to submit the 500 valid petition signatures required to qualify for the ballot.
Both 2nd Judicial District Court lawsuits were filed Sept. 2 by former state Sen. Jacob Candelaria and Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, attorneys with Candelaria Law LLC.
A key issue in both suits centered on whether signatures are valid if they are submitted after the city’s July 7 deadline but prior to an Aug. 26 deadline set by the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office.
Judge Joshua Allison ruled in favor of the candidates at a hearing Friday.
Candelaria said he plans to appeal the ruling to the New Mexico Supreme Court but that both Telles and Garcia will remain on the ballot.
“The ballot has to be sent to the printer today,” Candelaria said Tuesday. “As a practical matter, any appeal to the Supreme Court will not result in these candidates being removed from the ballot.”
One lawsuit alleged that Telles failed to qualify in a four-way race for an open District 1 council seat. District 1 Councilor Louie Sanchez is vacating his post to run for mayor, leaving his West Side seat open.
Telles submitted 581 signatures, but the City Clerk’s Office accepted only 493 as valid, leaving her seven signatures short to qualify for the ballot, the suit alleged.
Allison dismissed the suit against Telles after finding that signatures she submitted after the city’s July 7 were valid under state election laws.
The judge found that Telles has submitted 503 valid signatures, said Telles’ attorney, David Ring.
“Ms. Telles made it by three signatures — she got 503,” Ring said.
Following Allison’s ruling in the Telles case, Candelaria and Maestas voluntarily withdrew their lawsuit against Garcia, who also submitted signatures after the July 7 deadline, Candelaria said.
Ring argued in a motion state election law gives candidates 70 days — until Aug. 26 — to submit nominating petitions.
The city’s July 7 deadline “amounts to an unlawful attempt to abridge state law,” Ring said in the motion. “It limits the right of voters to participate in the candidate nomination process and of candidates to run for office.”
West Coast states issue joint vaccine recommendations ahead of CDC advisers meeting - By Gene Johnson, Associated Press
Four Democratic-led Western states announced joint recommendations Wednesday about who should be vaccinated for seasonal respiratory viruses, including the flu and COVID-19, saying the Trump administration has jeopardized public health by politicizing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii early this month formed the West Coast Health Alliance in an effort to combat what they describe as the "weaponization" of federal health agencies to advance antivaccine policies, despite decades of scientific research showing that vaccines are safe and effective.
Their recommendations follow those of major medical organizations and came a day before a panel of CDC advisers were due to begin meeting to review recommendations for some vaccines, including COVID.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading antivaccine activist before becoming the nation's top health official, fired the entire 17-member panel earlier this year and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices. Former CDC chief Susan Monarez told senators on Wednesday she was fired after 29 days on the job after refusing Kennedy's demands that she sign off on changes to the childhood vaccination schedule without data to back up the changes.
"Public health leaders warn these moves dismantle independent, science-based oversight and inject politics into decisions that protect Americans' health — undermining the CDC's credibility at a moment when trust and clarity are most needed," the West Coast Health Alliance said Wednesday.
In a written statement Wednesday, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon criticized the effort.
"Democrat-run states that pushed unscientific school lockdowns, toddler mask mandates, and draconian vaccine passports during the COVID era completely eroded the American people's trust in public health agencies," Nixon said. "HHS will ensure policy is based on rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science, not the failed politics of the pandemic."
The recommendations from the West Coast Health Alliance include that all residents older than 6 months get a flu vaccine and that all babies receive protection from RSV. Among those who should receive the COVID vaccine are children 6 months to 23 months old; all adults over 65, and everyone younger than 65 who has risk factors or is in contact with people with risk factors; anyone pregnant or planning a pregnancy; and "all who choose protection."
Kennedy's moves have prompted debate and action in the states. Florida has taking steps to become the first state to get rid of school vaccine mandates, with some states looking to follow its lead. Others are promising to protect vaccines for children and adults.
Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey governor has said the state is requiring insurance carriers to cover vaccinations recommended by its public health department, regardless of whether they are endorsed by the federal government. Her state is also leading a bipartisan coalition of eight Northeast states that met over the summer to discuss coordinating vaccine recommendations.
In New Mexico, pharmacists have received the go-ahead to administer COVID-19 shots based on state health department guidelines rather than just the federal government's immunization advisory committee.
Pennsylvania's pharmacy board voted this month to protect the availability of COVID-19 vaccines for those most in need and to make it accessible across the state, at the urging of Gov. Josh Shapiro. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson have directed health officials to make sure residents are able to be vaccinated against the virus.