Today we received some more technical assistance from Taos Soil and Water Conservation District. As in previous posts, TSWCD helped us upgrade our main headgate and another diversion structure. Now we are looking at a problematic area on our Acequia Madre that is downcutting and eroding excessively. In many areas the acequia channel is downcut over two feet. So we are looking at possible solutions to the problem that can include creating a series of check dams, stabilizing and compacting the acequia channel, or if worst comes to worst, putting the acequia in a pipe.
We are currently doing the acequia cleaning and TWSCD engineers will have to come back once the acequia is clean and the application is submitted to shoot elevations using a transit so we can get a better idea of specific problem areas. It appears as if the original Acequia Madre was moved many years ago with a backhow, something that should be illegal but something we typically see with ignorant property owners and developers in Taos. Hopefully we can repair this section of acequia efficiently, we have many parciantes (irrigators) downstream of this problem area…
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