Every year, some acequia associations in Northern New Mexico begin the growing season by blessing their irrigation ditches.

Such ceremonies are just one of the many ways acequias have influenced the traditional, centuries-old water culture of Northern New Mexico, according to author and historian José A. Rivera.

Rivera spoke to a group that included more than 100 acequia users Wednesday at the Santa Fe County Extension Office at a symposium hosted by New Mexico State University. They were there primarily to see the findings of NMSU scientists who spent the last several years studying what happens to water seeping from unlined ditches in Velarde, north of Santa Fe. The research indicates the seeping irrigation water boosts shallow aquifers and eventually returns to the river. Other researchers looked at the role acequias play in lush riparian ecosystems throughout the river valley.

Traditional farmers face multiple challenges to both their water rights and their irrigation methods. Developers want to buy up irrigation rights and use the water for houses. Some environmentalists have said flood irrigation is wasting water. In dry years, irrigators have struggled to get enough water down ditches to farm at all. Some have turned increasingly to lining main ditches with concrete and then running the water through pipes before releasing it into field rows, which has helped stretch the flow.

Still, in the big picture, the hundreds of miles of acequias in New Mexico have long benefited wildlife, farmers and the water table, Rivera said. The findings of the NMSU scientists confirm what old-timer acequia parciantes have said for decades — irrigating fields is not a waste of water. And it has left an indelible mark on the social, political and agricultural structure of farming villages.

"Acequia culture is la cultura de la aqua, (the culture of water)," Rivera said.

From Questa to Albuquerque, and from Las Vegas, N.M., to Cuba, acequias criss-cross the landscape. Open a head gate in the spring, and if there's water in the ditch, it almost miraculously flows down rows and across fields, irrigating gardens, corn, alfalfa and orchards. The naked eye can barely see the slight incline across fields and between ditches that uses gravity to push the flow along.

Rivera was asked to describe how some of the old ditches were dug, before there was modern machinery or surveying equipment. He said the first ones were dug with wooden tools, including shovels made of walnut, which apparently shed mud more easily. He said in Chamisal, oral histories tell of men trying to figure out how to build the ditches. "They say a woman got out a stick and started digging, and the water followed," Rivera said.

Acequias are social equalizers, Rivera said. All parciantes on an acequia are expected to pay their annual dues and help with the cleaning, regardless of their social status. But in practice, today fewer people are helping clean out the ancient ditches or using the water for farming in some areas.

Still, the people at the symposium are proof that the interest in traditional acequias and farming is alive and healthy in New Mexico.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.