The 65,000 or so property owners within the district boundaries. Cochiti, Agostura, Isleta, San Acacia. For thousands of irrigators large and small, including Garcia, taking water from the ditches keeps a centuries-old tradition alive. I couldn't have this with city water. What the South Valley legislator considers a way of life, others see as wasteful.
Water is scarce in the New Mexico desert.
Today, expanding cities and the mounting realization that the Rio Grande ecosystem may be in serious trouble are straining water supplies even more. The possibility of shortages has drawn attention to the conservancy district, a taxpayer-funded political subdivision of the state that controls most of the water drawn from the middle Rio Grande. Critics say that the district could help stave off a crisis by using its water wisely. At the farms, the water is spilled out across the land where it can evaporate as if it were in a wide pan out in the sun. They aren't willing to modernize.