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Ann McCartney

About Ann McCartney

Posts by Ann McCartney:

Rainwater Catchment

Rainwater Catchment: a Path Back to Traditional Farming

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The recently articulated vision of the Honoring Water Group, an informal citizen’s group meeting at Zuni, Vanderwagen and Gallup is: “Abundant water, respected and treated ethically.  When water is honored as sacred, mutual flourishing is possible.”  This citizen’s group, with much organizational support from James and Joyce Skeet of Vanderwagen, seeks to honor and protect water in many ways, including addressing the water scarcity many people experience in the NW region of the state.

James and Joyce Skeet embraced water scarcity directly by establishing Spirit Farm, their working farm in Vanderwagen, south of Gallup, in the high desert of the Navajo reservation with no water well on their farm.  Their vision of “healing the soil, healing the soul” is fully realized as their working experiential farm draws people from all parts of the U.S. and the world to experience their living example of how we can recover and reclaim traditional farming and spiritual practices, along with modern practices, to establish resiliency in our way of life. The Skeets collect rainwater of building rooftops into tanks for their drip irrigation and haul water as needed from Gallup for themselves, their animals, and plants. Established in 2015, on Spirit Farm the Skeets have applied ancient indigenous wisdom, integrating new solutions energized by nature. Their farming practices, including microbiological compost and rotational grazing, have enhanced soil quality, increased nutrient density in their crops, and reduced their water use while fostering environmental resilience and community integrity.  

Beyond and through Spirit Farm, the Skeets, with other community members in the Gallup area, have undertaken to do something more about water scarcity and nutrition needs with a vision of native people growing their own food.  In collaboration with the Little Sisters of the Poor, an international congregation of Roman Catholic women who run an elder care center- Villa Guadalupe- in Gallup, the Skeets have installed a rain water catchment system on the Villa Guadalupe roof, setting up tanks for holding the rainwater to be delivered to other native growers who, like the Skeets, have limited or no access to water to grow their food.

Their project aims to save the rainwater from urban rooftops to share with Native growers who have no access to water.  Funds have been raised to purchase and install the gutters and the tanks at Villa Guadalupe.  The next hurdle is the purchase of a water truck to transport the water to growers.  To that end, the Skeets have raised more than $11,000 towards the $32,000 price and have a GoFundMe, Sharing Rain from Urban Rooftops with Native Growers, for raising more funds. Donations are welcome and needed. The Skeets are living the group’s vision: “When water is honored as sacred, mutual flourishing is possible.”

 

Water Coalition Signage

NM Court Stops Augustin Plains Ranch Water Grab

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At a momentous hearing on April 5, 2024, more than 100 community members from Catron County crowded the court room and hallways of the Seventh Judicial District court in Reserve to hear oral argument on the Augustin Plains Ranch LLC’s continuing and relentless requests to mine and hoard 54,000 acre-feet of water a year from the arid San Augustin Plains.  District Court Judge Roscoe Woods heard arguments from  Augustin Plains Ranch (APR) and the many allied parties opposing the transfer including the State Engineer Water Rights Division, the Catron County Commission, the Helen Hand Ranch, and two groups of area residents including the Community Protestants group, represented by NM Environmental Law Center. Agreeing that the Ranch’s request to transfer this groundwater was pure speculation, Judge Woods ruled from the bench in favor of denying the transfer as contrary to NM law on beneficial use.  

The district court granted the State Engineer’s Motion for Summary Judgment, ultimately preventing APR from pumping water from 30 proposed wells, which APR hoped to pipe upstate to municipalities north of Socorro such as Los Lunas and Belén.  The San Augustin Plains basin is a closed groundwater basin meaning it has no perennial water source to recharge the basin.  The groundwater in the basin is considered fossil water with calculations that the water is 9,000 to 11,000 years old. It is unconscionable to think that the water could be mined and delivered via pipeline to municipalities to dangle it in front of developers for unsustainable growth in our state, which is already in a water crisis.

Since 2007, NMELC has fought alongside Catron County residents against APR’s determination to hoard the fossil groundwater and to protect the water which residents rely on for their homes, gardens and livestock. This marks a major win for water, people and ecosystems.  The decision will be precedential for the State Engineer in determining when applications to transfer water are speculative and the applicants do not have an imperative need for the water they seek.  The long course of the APR litigation has included two speculative, nearly identical applications from APR to appropriate groundwater and multiple appeals from the State Engineer’s decisions denying these applications to both the district court and the New Mexico Court of Appeals. It is our hope that APR will finally take NO! for an answer.  APR will have 30 days after the entry of a written order from the April 5 hearing to appeal the decision to the Court of Appeals. No written order has been entered to date. 

Niagara protest sign

Los Lunas – Niagara Bottled Water

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The Village of Los Lunas Councilors voted 3:2 to double the amount of groundwater this California corporation pumps from Village well to sell in plastic bottles. They authorized the company’s water extraction to double, to 195 million gallons per year.  The approval for more water taking was allowed despite the presentation of Village water consultants, Lee Wilson and Associations, at the meeting, that Niagara Bottling had run over its allotted amount of water usage almost every month since it began in 2017. 

 “Water belongs to the people. Period. It is not for corporate profit,” said Alejandria Lyons, who grew up in Valencia County and has a masters degree in community planning. “This valley was created on subsistence farming, on the cultures, on Isleta Pueblo specifically, who have not been able to have a say on this [Niagra] expansion issue,” Lyons spoke at the recent rally calling attention to the recent vote by Los Lunas village council giving the green light for Niagara Bottling expansion to take more water for bottling in plastic bottles from the Rio Grande Basin.

Mayor Charles Griego’s surprising announcement at the February 8 meeting,, “We are not… Clearly NOT going to be opening this up for any public comment,” which shut down all public comment, still resonates among the community. Griego’s undemocratic move has ignited a firestorm of criticism.

Mayor Griego and Councilors Ortiz and Runyon supported the expansion, while Councilors Romero and Munoz opposed it. Despite opposition from Pueblo of Isleta leadership and the Mayors of Peralta and Bosque Farms, community leaders were not allowed to speak at the meeting.

In an interview on DPVC Radio, Mayor of Peralta,  Byran Olguin said, ‘What really frustrates me is not one word was said about the farmers in this Middle Rio Grande Valley and how they are going to be impacted.’ 

Following the vote, Valencia Water Watchers organized a rally where residents gathered at Los Lunas Memorial Park,  vowing to continue the fight against what they perceive as corporate overreach at the expense of the community’s water resources. The gathering served as a rallying cry for those committed to protecting their water rights from exploitation for corporate gain. 

NM Acequia Association came bringing signs that read, “Agua es Vida”  and brightly painted shovels painted with the patron saint of the acequias, San Ysidro, which they bring out when there are times of drought. Dabi Garcia said, “This is a time when our community is under threat.” He then sang a traditional acequia song, keeping the beat on the shovel handle. YUCCA member Zypher Jaramillo, from the Pueblo of Isleta said,  “As Pueblo People our lifeways are inextricably connected. Water is not a resource but a relative and needs to be protected.” 

San Ysidro