Intersections of Authority: Science, Law and the the Management of Water Resources in New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley (Standard Research Grant)

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

The research objective of "Intersections of Authority" is to identify and interpret the ways that federal natural resource management philosophy was co-opted and modified during its enactment in specific legal and political contexts in the American West. Through archival and documentary investigation of New Mexico's Office of the Territorial/State Engineer in the early twentieth century, the project will examine the intersection and co-existence of various authority structures at work in the practical determination of water rights for the Rio Grande Valley. Specifically, the project seeks to answer the following research questions: 1. How was the scientific authority invoked in federal resource management policy for the American West negotiated and altered through its legislative incorporation into existing legal and political systems for water rights determination in New Mexico in 1905 and 1907? 2. In what ways and to what extent did the Office of the Territorial/State Engineer participate in a negotiation of multiple authorities or integration of various forms of expertise to legitimize its water management activities between 1905 and 1917? 3. To what extent did the State Engineer's production of legitimate environmental knowledge for the Rio Grande Valley in 1917 and 1918, through scientific survey and definitive cartography, reflect its successful negotiation of multiple authority sources? To answer these three questions, the project will contextualize legislation, legal cases, policy documents, and topographical maps related to the administration of water rights for New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Lane's methodological expertise in using archival materials to critically interpret geographical knowledge production will be supplemented by the expertise of Dr. Matthews in legal issues related to the geography of natural resources and public lands. Drawing theoretically from recent work in the geography of science and the nature of expertise, the project will fundamentally question the rational basis of early water reclamation policy in the American West by illuminating the extent to which early water management expertise and authority were rooted in local knowledge and local politics. This creative re-investigation of well-studied resource disputes in New Mexico will foreground the intersections and interactions of competing authority systems over the Western waters. As many of the laws passed in the early twentieth century still govern resource use today, a fuller understanding of the root legislation's practical instabilities and applications will shed new light on contemporary water disputes. The State Engineer's maps of the Rio Grande Valley produced in 1917 and 1918 are today considered some of the earliest sources of reliable evidence regarding the seniority of modern claims to water rights. As time erases some of the contingent and incomplete nature of its scientific authority, we must look anew at the structures of expertise and authority that supported the map series and its makers. This project will thus helpfully complicate our understanding of historical evidence as the Rio Grande Valley continues its rapid urbanization, and as the value of water continues to rise.