From The Taos News (J. R. Logan) via the Taos Valley Acequia Association:
The extremely low flows have prompted four acequias that use the river to enter into a water-sharing agreement that some say hasn’t been implemented since the devastating droughts of the ’30s. Following a special meeting June 16, the acequias have agreed to take turns using the full flow of the river on a rotating schedule. Per the sharing agreement, Ledoux’s ditch — the Acequia Madre del Rio Grande del Rancho — will have the water for three days. The Acequia del Finado Francisco Martinez ditch will then have three days, followed by two days for the Acequia Abajo de la Loma and Acequia en Medio de Los Rios.
On Tuesday (June 25), the Rio Grande del Rancho was trickling at 2.3 cubic feet per second (cfs) — less than 10 percent of normal — according to the U.S. Geological Survey stream flow gauge near Talpa. Since 1952, the only other June with a lower flow was in 2002 when the river averaged a meager 1.7 cfs.
Given its current flow, none of the acequias would be able to do much if they all pulled from the river at once.
Acequias — dug in the Ranchos Valley by Hispano settlers starting in the 1700s — are engineered to use the
momentum of the river to push water down the ditches. Every turn and slight rise in the landscape slows that water, and it can be impossible to get it from the river to the fields when there isn’t enough oomph. Diverting the river into a single ditch maximizes the water’s push and gets it to as many properties as possible.“If you have the whole river for three days, you can accomplish a lot more,” said Larry Mondragòn, chairman of the Francisco Martinez ditch commission.