The ditch is the government

What this desk covers

An acequia is a community-governed irrigation ditch. In New Mexico it is also a political subdivision of the state, with elected commissioners and a mayordomo, and many of them are older than the state, the territory, and the counties drawn around them. Their business happens at the ditch, at the county, and at the Office of the State Engineer — almost never at a city council, which is why the rest of this site cannot carry it.

Office of the State Engineer (OSE)

The state agency that administers New Mexico's water rights, issues permits, and enforces compliance orders.

Adjudication

The court process that decides, for every user on a stream system, how much water they have a right to and how old that right is. Seniority decides who gets water in a dry year.

Consumptive Irrigation Requirement (CIR)

The state's estimate of how much water a crop actually consumes on an acre in a given place, in acre-feet per year. In an adjudication it becomes the ceiling on a water right — so the number itself is often what the fight is about.

Headgate

The gate where a ditch takes water from the river. Ordering one closed stops the whole ditch.