ogallala: she poured out her own

Julene Bair visits her family's now defunct farm and sees the blade of the windmill that used to pump their well lying on the ground. She reflects on her family's use of water from the Ogallala aquifer, its declining water levels, and the economy we have built upon the semi-arid land. She notes that Ogallala means something like "She poured out her own," an apt name for an aquifer that is being mined. She writes,

"Without a spiritual tradition that recognizes the balance of nature and holds it sacred, our relationship to the land and its bounty is like a child's in a candy store with no adult present to restrain us from gorging. We don't identify ourselves as natives of ecosystems bounded by natural limits of land and climate but as citizens of countries, states, and counties, and as owners of farms, places demarcated by lines on maps. We conduct ourselves within an economy that depends on the depletion and degradation of the real things--plants, animals, soils, air, water--that sustain us." (p.90)

From "She Poured Out Her Own," Julene Bair, Home Land, Ranching and a West that Works, Laura Pritchett, Richard L. Knight, and Jeff Lee, eds.

old questions

acequia riddles

In his article "Water--New Mexico's Delicate Balance" (New Mexico Magazine, May 1983), G. Emlen Hall recounts a riddle that is posed annually in some of the aceuqias in northen New Mexico. (Professor Hall will be teaching my Water Law class at UNM this semester, by the way).

"En que es suspendido este mundo?"
"De voluntad de Dios."
"Y en que es suspendido nuestro pueblo?"
"Del rio."

"What does the world hang from?"
"It hangs (by a string) from the will of God."
"And what does our village hang from?"
"The river."

Would that we all took part in this annual ritual. Perhaps we New Mexicans would thereby cultivate a better appreciation of the importance of water to our existence.

el mar lejano

I promised you not just the dry factual details and the broad stroke visions of the water wonks. I promised you also the perspectives of art, literature, religion. Today, a poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez.

El mar lejano

La fuente aleja su cantata.
Despiertan todos los caminos . . .
!Mar de la aurora, mar de plata;
que limpio estas entre los pinos!
Viento del Sur, ?vienes sonoro
de soles? Ciegan los caminos . . .
!Mar de la siesta, mar de oro;
que alegre estas sobre los pinos!
Dice el yerdon no se que cosa . . .
Mi alma se va por los caminos . . .
!Mar de la tarde, mar de rosa;
que dulce estas entre los pinos!

I apologize for the lack of proper punctuation, and also for the informality of the following spontaneous translation.

The distant sea

The fountain sings distantly.
All the roads awaken . . .
Dawn sea, silver sea;
how clean you are among the pine trees!
South Wind: do you breathe the sound
of the sun? The roads are blinded . . .
Siesta sea, golden sea;
how joyful you are among the pine trees!
The yerdon bird calls . . .
My soul wanders over the highways . . .
Evening sea, pink sea;
how sweet you are among the pine trees!

water wars

Last weekend I read Water Wars: Drought, Flood, Folly, and the Politics of Thirst (2002, ISBN 1-57322-995-4) by Diane Raines Ward. I thought she did a great job of touching on the major water issues in many parts of the world, including India, Australia, the Euphrates (Turkey-Syria-Iraq), Holland, and the American Southwest.

Two things were of particular interest to me. She devoted a lengthy section to Australia's Murray-Darling Commission and its work providing both water and hydro power on the Snowy River basin. This was a situation where the powers-that-be approached the problems from a whole watershed perspective.

The other thing she talked about was the potential for low-head micro-hydro power, i.e. putting smallish hydrelectric generators on smaller stream and dams as an alternative to massive damming projects. She talked about the importance of evaluating the specific conditions on a case by case basis to determine the most effective overall approach--something that makes a whole lot of sense to me.