Acequias in Colorado

What an acequia is

An acequia is a gravity-fed irrigation ditch that a community builds, maintains and governs together. The word comes from Spanish, by way of Arabic. Acequias came to the upper Rio Grande with Spanish and Mexican settlement and reached what is now southern Colorado in the mid-1800s, when Hispano families from New Mexico settled the Culebra and Conejos valleys and other parts of the San Luis Valley and the Purgatoire and Huerfano basins.

The acequia tradition treats water as a shared community resource. Irrigators — called parciantes — hold the right to use water from the ditch, contribute labor to clean and repair it (the spring cleaning is often called the limpia), and elect a mayordomo who manages the ditch and divides the water. In dry years, many acequias share shortages among members rather than cutting off the newest users entirely.

The oldest ditch in Colorado

The San Luis People's Ditch in Costilla County takes water from the Culebra and is widely cited as the oldest continuously used ditch in Colorado, with an appropriation dating from April 10, 1852 — 24 years before statehood.

Acequias and prior appropriation

Colorado law is built on prior appropriation: each water right has its own priority and is administered on its own. That fits awkwardly with the acequia idea of sharing water by need and fairness. Acequias in Colorado hold decreed water rights like any other ditch, and the State Engineer administers those rights by priority on the stream. How the water is divided inside the acequia is the community's business, governed by its customs and bylaws.

Two other issues come up often. First, Colorado ditch companies have usually allocated water in proportion to shares, and shares can be sold off the ditch; an acequia losing water rights to outside buyers weakens the whole community. Second, the Rio Grande Compact applies to San Luis Valley acequias as to every other diverter, so compact curtailment can reduce what an acequia takes even when its rights are senior.

The 2009 acequia recognition law

In 2009 the Colorado General Assembly passed House Bill 09-1233, which added C.R.S. 7-42-101.5 to the law on ditch and reservoir companies. It defines an acequia as a ditch that:

• originated before Colorado statehood;
• has historically treated water diverted by the acequia as a community resource and allocated it based on equity as well as priority;
• relies essentially on gravity-fed surface water diversions;
• has historically been operated on a one landowner–one vote system; and
• has historically relied on labor from the landowners it serves.

An acequia that incorporates as an acequia ditch corporation may adopt bylaws that hold elections on a one landowner–one vote basis, require labor contributions or assessments in lieu of labor, allocate water by methods other than proportional ownership, and establish a right of first refusal over the sale, lease or exchange of surface water rights historically used on the acequia. That last tool lets the community keep water rights on the land.

Help and resources

The Colorado Acequia Handbook, prepared by the Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association, the University of Colorado Law School's Getches-Wilkinson Center, Colorado Open Lands and volunteer attorneys, explains water rights, incorporation, bylaws, conservation easements and the Rio Grande Compact for acequias. CU Law's Acequia Assistance Project offers pro bono legal help. The Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association, based in San Luis, works with acequias in the region and co-hosts the annual Congreso de Acequias.

Following it in BasinMind

The live box above shows today's active calls in Division 3, the Rio Grande basin, including the most senior call. Call records name the calling structure and its stream — Culebra, Trinchera, Sangre de Cristo Creek and others. BasinMind answers in Spanish as well as English; its information is advisory, and the Division 3 office in Alamosa is the authority on administration.