Once again, it’s the Abeyta Settlement

The watersheds, rivers and springs have always been among the natural treasures of the Taos Basin. These waters have allowed Taos Puebloans to thrive here for more than 1,000 years and supported us “newcomers” as well.

Many people were alarmed when the Pueblo’s Buffalo Pasture started to dry out due to over-pumping by wells of the El Prado Water and Sanitation District. Most stakeholders agreed that these indigenous water rights should be protected, and comprehensive negotiations began to ensure those rights.

It wasn’t long before these discussions came to be dominated by lawyers, investors who would directly profit from local economic expansion, and would-be water barons who sought to convert Taos Valley’s sacred waters into a commodity. After years of meetings (most of them conducted behind closed doors by the “professionals”), the Abeyta Settlement was foisted on our citizenry. In 2013, the first to sign this 101-page document was Ken Salazar, Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior, and his signature was followed by those of representatives from Taos Pueblo, the Town of Taos, El Prado Water and Sanitation District, 12 mutual domestic water associations, Taos Valley Acequia Association, and several dozen local acequias.

At first glance, this agreement seems to have garnered universal acceptance, but that was never true. My acequia in Arroyo Hondo signed without being allowed to read a copy of the document. I suspect that the great majority of other acequias did not understand the importance of this settlement and how it could impact the water they depend on for agriculture, orchards, gardens, animals, private well recharging, riparian vegetation, and water table replenishment.

I and perhaps 200 other concerned citizens attended a meeting held shortly before the Abeyta Settlement was finalized. The appointed “water master” and a team of five government lawyers overruled every objection that was raised. This meeting and the signatures were shams, dog-and-pony shows rigged to give the appearance of widespread approval. Then we were told that the settlement has the force of law and cannot be altered.

This agreement seeks to make everybody happy by supplying vast quantities of water from our deep aquifer. We are assured that this will not affect our wells or surface waters, but if it does, any losses will be compensated by drilling more mitigation wells. So the solution to a lack of water in the Pueblo’s Buffalo Pasture is to put in dozens of new deep wells and pump out more water. And for each gallon pumped for local use, 1.3 gallons will be sent downstream to be used elsewhere.

This approach to mining the deep aquifer water has already been tried in other areas with disastrous results, as documented in the Ogallala Aquifer that underlies the Midwest and Texas. Here’s a quote from a 2009 article in Scientific American:

“High Plains farmers were blissfully unaware a generation ago that a dilemma was already unfolding. In the early 1950s, when Rodger Funk started farming near Garden City, Kan., everyone believed the water was inexhaustible. ‘People were drilling wells,’ he says. ‘You could pump all the water you wanted to pump.’ And they did. What changed everything for Funk, now age 81, was a public meeting in the late 1960s at Garden City Community College. State and federal geologists, who had been studying where all that water was coming from, announced grim findings. ‘They said it’s geologic water. When it’s gone, it’s gone,’ Funk says. ‘I remember coming home and feeling so depressed.’” Let’s not let this happen here.

On Feb. 16, The Taos News ran a front-page article entitled, “Deep well one of several ongoing Abeyta projects.” Our elected officials should host public meetings to discuss the Abeyta and its far-reaching implications. We should hear testimony from the professionals that best understand deep-water aquifers: geologists and hydrologists. Only then, can the many stakeholders, elected officials, and citizens make informed decisions concerning the Abeyta Settlement and the future of our water resources.