Development
As Santa Fe has grown, family farms have slowly been pushed out of prime land along the water. Though New Mexico has a relatively low property tax that allows for long time families to keep their homes in what has now become prime real estate, as families die, move, or sell families trying to expand or hold on to acequia communities are priced out and forced to move away from the acequias. Then as Santa Fe expands the same scene is replayed over and over. The community of La Cienega (“The Marsh”) is one of the oldest Acequia communities in the US at around 300 years old. It is also beginning to feel the pressure of development and competing water needs.
Rey Romero is the 80 year old Mayordomo of La Acequia de la Cienega. He has farmed in la Cienega all his life and is part of a long line of farmers. However, his way of life along with the 33 other farmers in la Cienega are under threat as they face dropping water pressure. Since 1973 due to the 400 some homes that have appeared surrounding la Cienega the water pressure feeding the acequias has dropped significantly. Ray Romero says that the water used to flow at about 450 gallons per minute along the acequia in 1960 however, now in 2015 the water is flowing at about 200 to 150 gallons per minute. The new homes out of reach of the county water infrastructure use wells to tap into the ground water flowing from the mountains. These are supposed to be regulated but with no enforcement many owners are misusing the water growing orchards and grass and far exceeding their allotment. This relationship plays out much like the relationship between the two communities of Mumbai. How some less legitimate settlements are taking over water access from older more legitimate settlements. As this story of new developments taking water access plays out currently we see what played out in Santa Fe years ago and still does.