Boulder Briefs 2: Exempt Wells, Acequias, Culture, and Hydrology

This is the second and likely last of two posts on some of my impressions of the recently concluded UCOWR-NIWR meeting in Boulder, CO, last week. Again, these posts will not constitute an all-inclusive summary by any means. 

You should be able to access speaker bios, conference proceedings and PDFs of Power Points (forthcoming) by visiting the WWW site. 

Today I will focus on the session on exempt domestic wells and water governance.

Exempt Domestic Wells
John Tracy of the University of Idaho summarized the recent (17-18 May 2011) Exempt Wells Conference  (here is a summary from the NGWA blog;  here are the presentations).

 These wells are becoming a problem in some areas because even though they may not withdraw a lot of water - mosts states restrict withdrawals to around 5000 gallons per day (gpd) although here in Oregon we allow 15,000 gpd. The moniker 'exempt' is a misnomer; the wells are not necessarily exempt from regulation but do not require a certificated water right (except in Utah). The term is generally used to mean domestic wells, stock wells, small industrial wells, etc.

Tracy summarized the isseus:

• Impact on senior water rights holders
• water quality issues (poor well construction, also the association between exempt wells and septic tanks, lack of water testing)
• Well life cycles (proper abandonment, etc.)
• Land development and use

 And needs:

• Better data on locations
• Better education for exempt well users
• Better water quality testing sources fro exempt well users

And themes:

• Reflect growth pressures
• Site-based solutions needed - no 'one size fits all'
• Relationship building and leadership are keys

After Tracy, there were presentations by Nathan Bracken, Jesse Richardson, and Todd Jarvis. All three presented at the Walla Walla conference.

Jarvis, with OSU's IWW, summarized some of the issues with exempt wells and land use in Oregon. Richardson, with the Water Systems Council, summarized statutes in the US. He also opined that the exempt well kerfuffle is really about controlling growth. Bracken, with the Western States Water Council, gave an equation:

Growth + Water = Exempt Well Demand

If you have growth and you need water, exempt domestic wells are a solution.

Later, a panel discussion was held with all of the above plus Kevin Rein of the Colorado Division of Water Resources. Very good discussion and Q & A.

I've posted a lot on exempt wells - you can do a search on the left sidebar.Here is an example from WA and the famous Bounds case from NM, plus a guest post by Ray Walker.

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Water Governance  - Acequias, Climate Change, Culture, Water and Ecosystems
At the meeting I was surprised and very pleased to see friend and colleague José A. Rivera of the School of Architecture and Planning at UNM. He was there for a Water Governance session that featured the NSF-funded project that I blogged about earlier this year. Rivera and his colleagues - Brian Hurd and Sam Fernald (the PI) of NMSU, Vince Tidwell of Sandia National Laboratories - and their students gave some wonderful presentations of their plans for the work, which had just been funded. 

Tidwell will be handling the development of a system dynamics model. It will definitely be a quantitative approach.

 Here is an excerpt from a news release from NMSU about the project:

Water is the life blood of a community. Through the centuries, northern New Mexico communities along traditional acequia irrigation canals have managed the limited water resource provided by nature in ways that modern society can learn and benefit from.

New Mexico State University’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences has received a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to provide new insights into the relationships between traditional water management systems, communities and landscapes.

“We think there are clues for future water sustainability within these acequia systems,” said NMSU’s Sam Fernald, associate professor of watershed management, who is principal investigator of the five-year study. “We want to quantify how these inter-relationships benefit local communities and downstream water users.”

The study will involve hydrologists, sociologists, economists, anthropologists, remote sensing specialists, and rangeland and ecosystem scientists from NMSU, the University of New Mexico, Sandia Labs, New Mexico Tech University, Maxwell Museum at UNM, the University of Idaho, the University of Nevada at Reno and the University of Concepcion in Chile, as well as the New Mexico Acequia Association and community members from El Rito, Arroyo Hondo and Valdez, Velarde and Alcalde and surrounding areas.

Acequias consist of gravity-fed earthen canals that divert stream water flow for distribution in fields. These systems lie at the center of a set of complex self-maintaining interactions between culture and nature that appear to enable drought survival and maintain other socio-cultural and ecosystem benefits.

 

Rivera, an expert on acequias (he penned an wonderful book, Acequia Culture), reminded me that the current project was similar to one we (Rivera, Marilyn O'Leary, and I) submitted to NSF about six years ago. It was not as comprehensive as the current one, and ours was not funded. I am very anxious to see how this fascinating project evolves.

All in all, an excellent meeting, and it was good to see some folks I had not seen in a long time- Dave Kreamer (UNLV); Ron Kaiser and Val Silvy (Texas A & M); Ken Rainwater (Texas Tech); Reagan Waskom and Faith Sternlieb (Colorado State); Gretchen Rupp (Montana State); Joe Delfino (U of FL); Sharon Megdal (U of AZ); Maria Milanes-Murcia (U of the Pacific); Laurel Saito (U of NV); Bob Pietrowsky and Will Logan (USACE-IWR); and Steve Solomon, the author, who gave a great talk. 

Think I will attend the next meeting in Santa Fe in 2012.

 "The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment." -- Gaylord Nelson

Comments

[Michael Campana]

Hi, Eric.

You're welcome. Thanks for commenting.

I could not agree with you more. I used to be one of those with the 'dismissive' attitude. William DeBuys and a few others helped broaden my horizons.

It's a great project; I'm glad NSF had the wisdom to support it.

[Eric Perramond]

Nice to see that the acequia/water governance groups is ramping up its development. This combination of latest methods, appreciation for complexity, and also re-appraisal of so-called traditional methods (acequia irrigation) is exactly what we need.
It has always struck me as odd that the "high modernist" attitude towards acequias has been so dismissive; they are some of the most adaptive, responsive, and equitable arrangements for sharing and allocating surface waters especially in a changing climate headed towards dry conditions. Thanks for the post.