Corrales Faces a Water Crisis

Published February 10th, 2025 at 3:53 pm

By Jesse Jones

Farming has long been central to life in the Corrales, where residents relied on the river to irrigate fields in this dry, high-desert terrain. Agriculture still remains integral to the village’s identity, but local farmers face growing challenges.

Water shortages, infrastructure failures and rising property taxes threaten Corrales farmers, spurring new legislative efforts to redefine drought conditions and protect agricultural land. 

The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District’s (MRGCD) siphon once provided a steady water supply throughout the irrigation season. Now, when the Rio Grande drops too low, the siphon is shut off, usually before the growing season concludes.

“Many landowners, including descendants of the old families as well as recent arrivals, continue to farm even though the land value has far exceeded its market value as farmland,” according to The History of Agriculture in the Corrales Valley, a report by Mary Davis and Sayre Gerhart on the Village of Corrales website. 

Democratic Rep. Kathleen Cates of Rio Rancho has introduced two bills in this year’s 60-day legislative session to help safeguard New Mexico’s agriculturalists before more farms disappear under the pressures of water scarcity and rising costs.

“Both bills, in their own way, have to do with the siphon problem,” Corrales Councilor Rick Miera said. 

The first, House Bill 28, would shift drought declaration authority from the federal government to local entities for a faster response to water shortages.

“Some NM county assessors have decided to reclassify farmland as residential land because the crop yields dropped or land was not farmable due to lack of water,” Cates said. “In particular, Corrales farmers have been hit hard because the MRGCD siphon is broken and limited water is being fed to their farmlands.”

According to Miera, who helped draft the bill after proposing it to Cates, local officials, not the federal government, should determine drought conditions.

“Water may still be flowing down the Rio Grande, but we need the siphon to get the water from the river to the ditches,” Miera said. If the siphon doesn’t work, the ditches don’t work and nobody gets water — that’s a drought.”

Meanwhile, he said, Albuquerque can use its pumping systems to access the river so it doesn’t face the same water shortages. 

“We have a drought in Corrales and we’re going to have this drought for quite some time because we’re not having very much success with the siphon,” Miera said.

The bill first went to the Agriculture, Acequias and Water Resources Committee. According to Miera, lawmakers didn’t table it, which would have delayed it until next year. Instead, they rolled it over to allow time for amendments.

Cates said lawmakers adopted a committee substitute to address infrastructure failures without giving new agencies the authority to declare drought conditions.

Under the amended bill, land can be classified as “resting” if it fails to produce its usual agricultural yield due to a public water system failure, such as a broken irrigation system or malfunctioning siphon. The system must certify the failure to the county assessor. To qualify, the land must have been used for agriculture in the year before last or the year before the failure occurred.  

Miera said the bill will head to the Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee before heading to the House floor. After that, the process will start again in the Senate.

The second House Bill, 294, offers property tax reductions to landowners who place their land into conservation easements. The bill encourages open space preservation and aims to prevent residential development.

According to Cates, the bill would let land with important habitat, open space, or historic value qualify for an agricultural tax designation if placed under a conservation easement with a state or federal agency or an accredited land trust. She said the change would incentivize more landowners to preserve open space.

Miera said state law currently limits farmland preservation by requiring federal designation for approval. The bill would allow local assessors to approve farmland preservation without that requirement. Many landowners have placed land into conservation easements but receive no tax incentives.

The bill aims to speed up farmland preservation by bypassing federal bureaucracy, which can take years, Miera said. Property owners often choose to sell their land for development instead, saying, “I’ve been waiting for a while and I need to get some relief from taxes, so I’ll just sell it. It’s a couple of acres, and then two more houses go up, and we get no farmland preservation.”

Miera said property owners who want to put their land into farmland preservation often grow frustrated and consider selling instead. “I’ve been waiting for a while and I need to get some relief from taxes, and I’d just rather sell it,” he said. “Then two more houses go up and we get no farmland preservation.”

Miera added, “What we’re trying to do is put more into farmland preservation and less into residential development.”

The bill will be reviewed by the Agriculture, Acequias and Water Resources Committee Feb. 11.

“We’re well aware of the issues that Corrales specifically is having, and that’s why I really appreciate the councilor mentioning and understanding some of these changes that need to be made has to happen in legislation,”  said Linda Gallegos, the Sandoval County Assessor at the Aug. 28 Village Council meeting. “I do hope that it does stress the importance of communicating back and forth and contacting your legislators to make changes that are beyond our control.”