By TANIA SOUSSAN
SAN ACACIA (Albuquerque Journal) -- Score two for the farmers.
About 100 angry farmers staged a protest here Thursday to stop their irrigation water from being cut off for a tiny endangered minnow.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt reached a separate agreement that will help keep Rio Grande water flowing to farms.
And in federal court in Albuquerque, mediated talks continued over how to keep the river wet for the Rio Grande silvery minnow.
When Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District officials went out on the morning of July 27 to close an irrigation canal gate about 15 miles north of Socorro and send water into the Rio Grande, they were stopped by a line of farmers.
From 9:30 a.m. until after 3 p.m., the farmers and their families - along with state Rep. Don Tripp, R-Socorro, and Socorro Mayor Ravi Bhasker - gathered on a hot, dusty access road near the San Acacia Diversion Dam, where the irrigation canal meets the Rio Grande.
They carried picket signs and rallied to keep water flowing toward their farms.
"We want to keep water going to the farmer and let the minnow wait," Lemitar farmer Bill Chavez said.
Eddie Gutierrez, who grows alfalfa and corn on about 500 acres in Lemitar, agreed.
"The crops can't survive without the water," he said. "We believe it's ours. It's not theirs, the federal government's."
Drought has compounded problems along the Rio Grande this year, particularly south of San Acacia where the river is most prone to drying and where 95 percent of the minnows live.
The river was dry a little farther south at San Marcial the same day, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Tom Bauer said.
A team from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was out for the third day in a row July 27 trying to rescue minnows stranded in isolated pools as the river dried. On July 25 and 26, they rescued more than 78 fish but spotted many dead ones.
The farmers don't believe drying in the river will make the silvery minnow extinct, as environmentalists fear. They say the minnow has survived a drying river in the past and that their crops need water.
"The minnow has survived for years," said Tripp, who also farms about 200 acres in alfalfa near the town of Luis Lopez. "I've been here for 40 years, and I've seen the river dry up.
"We have to draw a line here. This is the lifeblood of our valley."
Looking for options: About 2 p.m., conservancy district chief engineer Subhas Shah and board chairman Lawrence Troncosa arrived from Albuquerque to talk to the crowd.
Shah climbed onto the tailgate of a pickup truck and proclaimed, "We are not going to close this gate."
The farmers cheered.
Instead of taking all the water from the ditch for eight or so hours, the district would release a portion of the water farther downstream for eight or 10 hours, Shah said.
He said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had asked the district for help in getting water into the river for minnows.
Shah said both the bureau and the district have released extra water from upstream reservoirs over the past two days. That water should make it down to the San Acacia area by the weekend.
"We should have enough water available for the farmers and for the minnow," he said. "We are not giving any of the farmers' water away."
Troncosa asked the farmers for their support "in practicing some restraint."
Nevertheless, some of the farmers are worried that it won't be the last time they'll be asked to give up water.
"It'll set a precedent, and every time they get short, they'll shut off our water," said Glen Duggins, who has 90 acres of chile in Lemitar.
Rob Leutheuser of the Bureau of Reclamation in Albuquerque said the conservancy district has an obligation to deliver water that the federal government has purchased to keep in the river for the minnow.
"Because the district was having trouble trying to deliver the (federal) water, they had to go back and make adjustments in their system," he said.
Delaying enforcement
Also on Thursday, Interior Secretary Babbitt announced he had agreed to delay enforcing a legal opinion that the federal government owns the district's dams and canals.
Under that opinion, the bureau had ordered the district to keep water flowing past the San Acacia dam for the minnow.
In return for Babbitt's move, Domenici said he would drop legislative efforts that would have blocked the bureau from enforcing its position.
Domenici said he and Babbitt will continue to talk.
"We need some long-term agreements," he said in a telephone interview. "Secretary Babbitt and I have agreed as soon as the courts are not involved we are going to do that."
John Horning of the Santa Fe environmental group Forest Guardians said he was disappointed in Babbitt's decision. He said the Clinton administration made a decision to "compromise principles and cut a politically expedient deal."
"The timing couldn't be worse," he said.
Forest Guardians and several other environmental groups filed a lawsuit against federal water managers last fall, seeking enough water for the minnow.
© 1997 - 2000 Albuquerque Journal
