State Archives Building, 1205 Camino Carlos Rey, Santa Fe
For hundreds of years, acequias have reallocated unused water rights within the same acequia for use by the other parciantes. However, under state law, unused water rights were subject to loss for non-use. In 2003, the legislature authorized acequias to operate “water banks” to provide acequias with the tools to protect water rights from loss for non-use. It acts as a “paper trail” documenting that water not used by a parciante is still in use by the remainder of the parciantes. In this workshop, we will discuss the NMAA Water Banking Template, which is a method for doing water banking including draft guidelines for operation and forms for documentation of banked water rights.