Reining in the Rio Grande : people, land, and water

296 Pages·2011·8.388 MB·English

by  Black, Mary E., Hall, G. Emlen, Phillips, Fred Melville

american west • environment • geology Phillips
Reining in the
Hall
“Reining in the Rio Grande provides a comprehensive overview of Rio
Black
Grande history and issues and would be useful to anyone seeking a
Rio Grande
broad understanding of the river’s upper basin above Fort Quitman.”
—new mexico historical review
R
e
The Rio Grande was ancient long before the first humans reached its banks. in • People, Land, and Water •
These days, the highly regulated river looks nothing like it did to those early i
n
settlers. Alternately viewed as a valuable ecosystem and life-sustaining foundation
g
of community welfare or a commodity to be engineered to yield maximum eco-

nomic benefit, the Rio Grande has brought many advantages to those who live in i
n
its valley, but the benefits have come at a price.

This study examines human interactions with the Rio Grande from prehistoric t
h
time to the present day and explores what possibilities remain for the desert river.
From the perspectives of law, development, tradition, and geology, the authors weigh e

what has been gained and lost by reining in the Rio Grande.
R
i
o
fred m. phillips directs the hydrology program in the Department of Earth and Envi-
G “a cautionary tale and an important one, a must-read for students of
ronmental Science at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
water politics.”—John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War
r
g. emlen hall is a professor emeritus in the School of Law at the University of New a
Mexico. His most recent book is High and Dry: The Texas-New Mexico Struggle for the Pecos n
River (UNM Press).
d
e
mary e. black has worked as an anthropological linguist, editor/writer, and librarian for
the University of Arizona and as an editor of Southwest Hydrology. She currently serves as a
liaison with tribes, federal agencies, and scientists.
isbn 978-0-8263-4944-6
90000
university of new mexico press
unmpress.com • 800-249-7737
9 780826 349446 > Fred M. Phillips • G. Emlen Hall • Mary E. Black
Reining in the Rio Grande

Reining in the
Rio Grande
People, Land, and Water
Fred M. Phillips
G. Emlen Hall
Mary E. Black
University of New Mexico Press | Albuquerque
ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8263-4945-3
© 2011 by the University of New Mexico Press
All rights reserved. Published 2011
Printed in the United States of America
First paperbound printing, 2015
Paperbound isbn: 978-0-8263-4944-6
20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5 6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Phillips, Fred M. (Fred Melville)
Reining in the Rio Grande : people, land, and water / Fred M. Phillips,
G. Emlen Hall, Mary E. Black.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
isbn 978-0-8263-4943-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Human ecology—Rio Grande Valley. 2. Riparian areas—Rio Grande
Valley. 3. Riparian ecology—Rio Grande Valley. 4. Riparian restoration—
Rio Grande Valley. 5. Irrigation farming—Rio Grande Valley. 6. Rio Grande
Valley—History. 7. Rio Grande Valley—Environmental conditions. 8. Rio
Grande Valley—Social life and customs. I. Hall, G. Emlen, 1942– II. Black,
Mary E., 1953– III. Title.
gf504.s685p47 2011
363.6’1097644—dc22
2010044445
This material is based upon work supported by SAHRA (Sustainability of semi-
Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas) under the STC Program of the National
Science Foundation, Agreement No. EAR-9876800. Any opinions, findings,
and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of SAHRA or of the
National Science Foundation.
Cover illustrations courtesy of (left to right): Danny Turner; Palace of the
Governors Photo Archive; Palace of the Governors Photo Archive;
Bureau of Reclamation, Albuquerque office
Author photo courtesy of Em Hall and Cindy Nee
Contents
Acknowledgments | vii
Prologue: Cochiti Pueblo and a Changing River | 1
Cochiti Pueblo represents a microcosm of the environmental history of the
Rio Grande.
Chapter I: Roots of the Rio Grande in Deep Time | 11
Eons of geological upheaval produced today’s Rio Grande.
Chapter II: Early Cultures | 23
The earliest human inhabitants of the Southwest experiment with ways to use
water, but their touch on the waters of the Rio Grande is light.
Chapter III: Newcomers to the Land | 37
The Spanish Empire introduces changes in water use and governance to the
Rio Grande.
Chapter IV: A New U.S. Regime | 53
Driven by a conviction of Manifest Destiny, U.S. society sweeps over the
Rio Grande, but major changes await the construction of the railroads in
the late 1870s.
Chapter V: The River Pushes Back | 67
The massive environmental demands imposed by industrial society destabilize
the river and endanger the livelihood of those who live on its banks.
Chapter VI: Conquest of the River by Science and Law | 81
Society seeks to make the desert bloom, but first the hydrology of the river must
be understood and laws devised to govern the division of its waters.
Chapter VII: Big Dams, Irrigation Districts, and a Compact | 103
The Rio Grande is finally reined in by the construction of massive dams, levees,
and irrigation works, leading to the formulation of an interstate compact to
apportion its use.
Chapter VIII: Mount Reynolds on the Middle Rio Grande | 127
New Mexico finds itself unable to fulfill the interstate compact until a new state
engineer, Steve Reynolds, reengineers the river.
v
contents
Chapter IX: Shifting Values, New Forces on the Rio Grande | 145
Residents of the Rio Grande valley rediscover their river and try to undo some of
the changes of the previous one hundred years.
Chapter X: Fulfilling Rio Grande Demands: What Has to Give? | 171
How can the Rio Grande continue as a living river in the twenty-first century?
Chapter XI: The Future of an Old River | 197
What can we learn from the past that will guide management of the Rio Grande?
Notes | 205
Bibliography | 219
Index | 241
Color Plates Follow Page | 144
vi
Acknowledgments
This book covers a vast span of time and huge geographical area; its writ-
ing would not have been possible without the contributions of many people
and organizations. The principal one of these is the Science and Technology
Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas
(SAHRA) at the University of Arizona, funded by the U.S. National Science
Foundation (NSF) under Agreement No. EAR-9876800. SAHRA is dedicated
to promoting the sustainability of water resources in the semiarid western
United States, and this work is a component of the public outreach aspect of
that effort. SAHRA provided salary and logistical support without which the
writing of this book would not have been possible. Fred Phillips especially
thanks SAHRA’s two directors, James Shuttleworth and Juan Valdés, and
associate director for knowledge transfer Gary Woodard. We hasten to add
that any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed
in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
views of SAHRA or the NSF.
Next, special thanks are due Martha Franks, a partner in the Albuquerque
firm Abramowitz & Franks, and Elizabeth Hadas, our editor at the University
of New Mexico Press, both of whom read the entire manuscript more than
once and greatly improved it through their critical commentary and edits.
Much of the graphical content of the book would not have been possible
without the efforts of Matej Durcik, Mike Buffington, and Shiloe Fontes
of SAHRA and Susan Delap of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology.
The following individuals all made valuable suggestions or contributions
to the content of the book: Steve Hansen, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Albu-
querque; Nabil Shafike and Kevin Flanigan, New Mexico Interstate Stream
Commission; Letty Belin, Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Department of
the Interior, Washington, D.C.; Sabino Samuel Vigil, mayordomo, Acequia
vii
acknowledgments
del Molino, Cundiyo, New Mexico; Anabel Gallegos, Middle Rio Grande
Conservancy District; attorney Mary Humphrey, Taos, New Mexico; attor-
ney Don Klein, Socorro, New Mexico; Elizabeth Cervantes, District I, New
Mexico Office of the State Engineer, Albuquerque; Barbara Mills, University
of Arizona; Robert Dello-Russo, New Mexico Office of Archaeological Stud-
ies; Julio Betancourt, U.S. Geological Survey; David Brookshire, University
of New Mexico; Paul Brooks, University of Arizona; Steve Cather, David
Love, Jane Love, and Richard Chamberlin, New Mexico Bureau of Geology
and Mineral Resources.
For aid in searching archives and for permissions to use images, we
thank Daniel Kosharek, Photo Archives, Palace of the Governors; Dean
Wilkey, Archives and Special Collections, New Mexico State University
Library; librarians and staff of the Center for Southwest Research, University
of New Mexico; Anabel Gallegos; Steve Hansen; Robert Eveleth and Kay
Brower, Socorro County Historical Society; Lu Ann Pavletich, San Antonio,
New Mexico; and Lois Phillips, Socorro. Special contributions were made
by Lisa Majkowski, Susan Delap-Heath, and Leigh Davidson, New Mexico
Institute of Mining and Technology; and by Padilla’s Mexican Kitchen in
Albuquerque and La Pasadita Café in Socorro. Emlen Hall wishes to explic-
itly acknowledge the indispensable contributions of his coauthors. Without
Fred Phillips, this book never would have been begun. Without Mary Black,
it never would have come to an end.
viii
Prologue
Cochiti Pueblo and a Changing River
The Rio Grande is an ancient river, the banks of which have long been home
to human settlement. The small pueblo of Cochiti lies at the heart of the
upper Rio Grande and its history is a microcosm of the history of the greater
river. This book, which looks at the ways the Rio Grande has shaped human
society in the Southwest and the ways that humans have changed the river,
starts by focusing on Cochiti Pueblo.
The pueblo physically sits at the boundary between the rugged highlands
of the Rio Arriba, the upper river, and the broad rift valley of the Rio Abajo,
the lower river, and thus at the center of the geological events that created
the river. Cochiti also resides at the interface of culture and technology. In
its earliest years, seven centuries ago, the pueblo hardly interfered in the riv-
er’s rhythm or flow, though it dwelt next to it. The pueblo now dwells in the
shadow of the tall Cochiti Dam, the most massive type of engineered work
on the river in modern times. In the intervening years, the pueblo has been
both witness to and participant in the changing interactions between the
river and the communities along it. A series of often contradictory values
and attitudes has emerged in the form of opposing visions of the river.
These changes and contradictions reflect the ambiguity with which
human society has approached the Rio Grande over the centuries. At times,
and among some Rio Grande peoples, the river seemed profoundly mysteri-
ous; to others it seemed perfectly knowable. To some the river was governed
by its own laws; to others it was intricately and extensively governed by the
laws of man. Some felt the river had a religious integrity best left alone; oth-
ers felt it invited the best and most profound technological improvements for
the benefit of man. Some considered the river to be the foundation of local
community welfare and sustenance that could not be separated or divided;
to others, the river was the subject of individual property rights entitled to
1