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.