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Post date: Nov 14, 2017 4:02:42 PM
The challenge of this project was the original condition of the data.
An acequia is a traditional irrigation ditch and the traditions that govern the distribution of surface water. The word ‘acequia’ comes from the Arabic, taken over by the Spanish, and imported to the new world by the conquistadors.
Right is a picture of some of the acequias (both active and not) in this part of Taos valley. Our acequia comes from Rio Pueblo, the blue line labeled '2'. The red lines indicate the ditches, but most of those that cross the highway have been blocked by road construction and are defunct.
Each parciante may own one or more parcels of land and pays a fee to the acequia association for the administration of water. This fee is based partly on the amount of owned land. Land ownership is maintained by the County Clerk.
My predecessor did a lot of work over the past ten years to determine the ownership of the land adjacent to the ditch. She had also billed each parciante and collected fees from some. These bills were in about 500 individually typed letters and the collection in a ledger and some spreadsheets.
Acequias (red lines) in Taos valley
Rivers (blue lines)
The first challenge, as I saw it, was to obtain a consistent list of parciantes, together with their mailing and email addresses and the parcels of land that each held. Because previous records were in separate documents there was no need for consistency. So the names of the parciantes might include first name, or just an initial. The family name might be mis-spelled. The names might be in the form of First Last or Last, First.
Since the land parcels can be sold, I need to track which parciantes are currently active, meaning that they own property along the acequia. They also move residence, as some are owned by seasonal residents from Texas. Other parciantes die, and their heirs and estate may or not be aware of the water rights and acequia participation. Or they get married and change names.
Parcels can also be subdivided. Some parcels have a street address, which is handy for those of us not familiar with land tracts and subdivision rules. Other parcels, such as grazing land, are not on a street.
Thus I need to track parcels independently from the parciantes, and connect the two: Parciante owns Parcel with water rights.
Each year the parciantes are required to help clean the ditch. If they do not provide a peon (laborer) to help with the ditch cleaning, they are charged a fee. Parciantes are also charge a fee to pay for management of the water. A Majordomo (‘mayor’ or manager) gets a nominal fee to turn on and off the water to the ditch from the source (generally a river) and to the lateral distribution ditches. More important, when water is scarce the majordomo adjudicates claims to the water within the acequia association.
Since there are several distinct acequias that draw water from the same river, we have a Taos Valley Acequia Association, and each parciante pays dues to that group.
Then there is a fee for the water, depending on the size of the parcel. As a data issue, this means I must know the size of each parcel.
Not everyone pays each year, and those who have not paid may not participate in decisions of the association. Also, they must be billed for past dues in addition to current dues.
Thus I must keep a record of who has been billed how much for each year and who has paid how much each year.
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