U.S. Water News Online
SANTA FE -- Northern New Mexico's irrigation ditch associations fear that an auction of water rights by a private company threatens efforts to keep water rights attached to the traditional ditch system.
"Our view is that water is so essential to all life, it should not be viewed as a commodity," said Paula Garcia, executive director of the New Mexico Acequia Association. "And traditionally, water could not be severed from the land."
She said the water rights up for auction were established through generations that maintained irrigation ditches and used the water for farming and livestock, Garcia said.
"It is unthinkable to some traditional people that you could cash that out," she said.
However, some people with generations-old water rights are selling and hired WaterBank of Albuquerque to handle the sale.
Water buyers had to bid on irrigation rights in the Pojoaque and Espanola valleys, with the minimum bid set at $25,000 an acre foot.
Hydrologist William Turner, who heads WaterBank, said 700 acre feet are for sale north of Espanola and about 25 acre feet are for sale in the Pojoaque Valley.
A letter offering the water rights for sale described them as proven, pre-1907 water rights, according to the state engineer's office.
Garcia said people are allowed to sell water rights. But she also said other ditch users should be told about such sales so they can comment on potential water rights transfers. A 2003 law allows acequia associations to protest such transfers.
Turner, a trustee for WaterBank and for Lion's Gate Water, a Canadian firm seeking New Mexico water rights, has sued the U.S. Department of Interior over his bid for 18,000 acre feet of water rights in the Gila River. He also has filed applications for thousands of acre feet of water that evaporates annually from Elephant Butte.
Turner has been sued by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District over his water brokering activities.
Turner, a member of the conservancy district's board, sent out thousands of letters to landowners in the district offering to buy pre-1907 water rights at up to $14,000 an acre foot.
His letter tells people that if they sell, they have to stop irrigating under the state engineer's rules. However, the conservancy district maintains that people can sell water rights and still lease water from the district's water bank.
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