SOMBRILLO — Tomas "Tommy" Maestas would have liked to marshal water Monday through an age-old irrigation system near the Santa Cruz River, but a thick coating of sediment has stubbornly blocked a key headgate since late August and silt has blanketed the acequia farther down the canal.

Maestas, the longtime mayordomo of Acequia de los Ortega and Acequia de los Garcia, knows orchard and crop farmers near Española will depend on these irrigation ditches come springtime. However, they are among many traditional irrigation systems now in crisis following monsoonal flash flooding. Steeped in history, the ditches have long been part of the region's agricultural heritage.

Heavy rains and flooding in August took a toll on acequias in the communities of Pojoaque, Chimayó and Santa Cruz, locking th

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