Providing Land Grants and Acequias Conservation and Environmental Services Act of 2017

The PLACES Act

What are Acequias and Land Grants?

Acequias and land grant-mercedes (land grants) are communities that are important to the culture and
history of New Mexico. Both types of communities can trace their origin back centuries, and are now
incorporated into New Mexicos government as independent political subdivisions. Unlike other
subdivisions, such as irrigation and conservation districts, acequias and land grants are unable to levy taxes
on users, and thus the cost of upkeep and repairs has historically been placed on individual members of the
community.
Do they currently have access to these programs?
In 2014, the New Mexico delegation fought for Acequias to have access to the Environmental Quality
Incentives Program (EQIP) program. The result was that the Farm Bill included an Alternative Agreements
provision for the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) Regional Conservation Partnership
Program (RCPP), a program that pairs partner organizations with producers to encourage natural resource
conservation on a landscape scale. The New Mexico Association of Conservation Districts, the New Mexico
Acequia Association, and the Interstate Stream Commission formed an RCPP, the, New Mexico Acequia
Revitalization on Historic Irrigated Lands, which is considered a huge success, and held up as a model for how
to operate alternative funding arrangements through NRCS.
What this bill does:
Bill S.2133, introduced by Senator Tom Udall, would build on this success and expand the ability for NRCS
to enter directly into alternative funding arrangements with these unique New Mexican institutions.
Supported by the New Mexico Acequia Association, New Mexico Acequia Commission, and the New
Mexico Land Grant Council, this legislation would allow the NRCS to enter into these arrangements
without a third-party organization and would allow the acequias to apply directly to programs such as EQIP,
which provides funding (up to $450,000) and technical assistance to farmers. There are hundreds of acequias
and dozens of land grants in New Mexico that would gain access to the conservation programs, so they can
perform work on their communal lands and infrastructure. This legislation is modeled on a similar
provision which provides access to conservation programs to tribes and pueblos.
This legislation will provide acequias and land grants with additional financial tools to improve their
irrigation systems and agricultural practices in order to provide conservation benefits across New Mexico. It
will also allow acequias and land grants to gain access to other conservation programs, such as the
Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations Program, which help producers reduce soil erosion, enhance
water supply and quality, increase wildlife habitat, and reduce damages from natural disasters.
This bill will also remove red tape for these groups, by allowing NRCS and to continue to conduct the
oversight and accounting roles, which were previously required for these entities to take over if they wanted
access to funds.