WHAT: Press Conference (in-person)
WHEN: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 at 4:30pm (before the ABCWUA Meeting at 5pm)
WHERE: One Civic Plaza, outside entrance to City Govt Center, near Plaza Eatery
WHO: Local small farmers and acequia users
WHY: To respond to the baseless & irresponsible comments made by a sitting County Commissioner
ALBUQUERQUE, NM—During a recent Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) meeting, Bernalillo County Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada made the following outrageous comment attacking our local farmers: “Farmers [in the middle Rio Grande] tend to be the biggest wasters of water.” He also claimed that this outrageous accusation was based on “research” that his office had conducted.
We want to be clear that we stand with small, traditional farmers who are water protectors, NOT water wasters. Traditional farming practices including flood irrigation from the acequia system is a centuries-old agricultural method that has been proven to be beneficial to our ecosystem, local plants and wildlife, the tree canopy and our aquifer. Commissioner Quezada’s ignorant comment is both inaccurate and unrepresentative of the honest work that our local farmers and irrigators do to provide us with much-needed produce. …