Representatives of communities that use acequias gathered at the Roundhouse Tuesday to call for support for legislation that would increase funding to maintain the ancient irrigation systems.
In the morning, Dabi Garcia played a song they wrote about acequias, as representatives of the New Mexico Acequia Association and community leaders gathered outside the state capitol building.
Don Bustos is the mayordomo of an acequia in Santa Fe County and says his farm is having to work with less water.
“Well, this year, it's a little bleak,” he said. “There's not a lot of snowpack.”
Bustos has worked to use water more efficiently with things like drip irrigation and evaporation barriers over his plants.
But he is also calling on the state to do more to support the roughly 700 acequias statewide. Lawmakers are set to consider two bills. Senate Bill 208 would double funding to the Acequia and Community Ditch Infrastructure Fund, from $2.5 million to $5 million. House Bill 330 would create a trust fund for acequias, and also for land grant communities.
“Acequias is an important piece of New Mexico because of the landscape and the agricultural economic benefits it brings to small communities, but also because it preserves culture and history,” said Bustos.
Bill sponsor Rep. Miguel García (D-Bernalillo) told KUNM the trust fund would supply about $18 million annually to land grant communities and a further $18 million to support acequias.
The funding could be particularly important because federal funding that supports acequia maintenance is under threat if the Trump administration withholds money, said Executive Director of the New Mexico Acequia Association Paula Garcia. (None of the Garcias in this report are related.)
“The grants that we've relied on to pay our staff are frozen right now, even though the judge said to lift the freeze,” she said. “No, our funds are frozen right now.”
The association partners with a USDA program called the Natural Resources Conservation Service to support underserved communities. The specific sub-program is called the equity and conservation program, and Garcia thinks the word equity could be causing the freeze.
She said the freeze means the association is not being reimbursed as planned for work done last year.
Garcia added that following events like the devastating 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermit’s Peak fire, which damaged many acequias, as much as $70 million is needed to keep the waterways healthy.
“Just with one year's worth of unmet needs, plus the disaster, multiple disasters, I should say, the climate crisis, we're seeing that we need much more funding to get through this difficult time,” he said.
House Bill 330 is scheduled for February 18, in the House Rural Development, Land Grants and Cultural Affairs Committee. Senate Bill 208 is not yet scheduled to be heard.
