Water and Agriculture

Sustainability in Cuatro Cienegas

Summer 2019 Report
Sheccid Sánchez
Erika Ruiz
Luis Arriaga
Manuel Carzo

Advised by:
Sam Sandoval
Helaine Berris
Laura Garza
Oscar Leal
Nancy Aceves

June 27, 2019

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................3
Methods...........................................................................................................................................3
Hydrologic Field Methods............................................................................................................3
Farmer Interview Methods..........................................................................................................5
Results..............................................................................................................................................7
Hydrology of Cuatro Cienegas.....................................................................................................7
Poza Azul..................................................................................................................................7
Poza de la Becerra...................................................................................................................8
Poza Churince..........................................................................................................................9
Morphology of Río Mezquite.....................................................................................................10
Agricultural Atmosphere...........................................................................................................11
Discussion......................................................................................................................................13
Water Levels from Pozas & Morphology of Rio Mezquite and its Agricultural Patterns..........13
Main Crops in Cuatro Cienegas..................................................................................................14
Social Dynamics of Cuatro Cienegas..........................................................................................14
Conclusions....................................................................................................................................15
Recommendations/Limitations.....................................................................................................15
Appendix........................................................................................................................................16
Ejido Cuatro Cienegas................................................................................................................16
Ejido la Vega y el Venado...........................................................................................................16
References.....................................................................................................................................17

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Executive Summary
The investigation done consisted in analyzing hydrology of Cuatro Cienegas and how
water resources are being used in coordination with aspects like agriculture and human
interaction. The focus in the ecosystem and all the aspects that affect the way it works helps get
a broad view of the existing problems between government, conservation institutions and local
farmers. By analyzing the level of the pozas and the river flow trends we found correlations that
show how the hydrology of this zone works. Another method use agricultural wise was semi-
direct interviews which we conducted with local farmers. After this studies we found out that
farmers must collaborate together with ecologists and government to generate results that
help improve the local environment and ecosystems. To achieve this, it is needed to encourage
a decrease in monoculture of Alfalfa. All types of crops have to be grown and sold so each
ejidatarios can have a favorable income and diminish the water consumption. As well it is
needed a new pipe system in the valley. Water loses can be seriously reduced and the
ejidatarios will receive more water. Farmers with government help must invest in advanced
irrigation system, such as drip and sprinkler, to reduce the water loss and benefit production.
Grants, flux sensors, technologies and many other pieces of help must be given by the
government as part of the annual budget to maintain a healthy ecosystem that satisfies
everyone needs.

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Introduction
Cuatro Ciénegas is a small city in the Northern Mexican Dessert. It is located in the State of
Coahuila between three mountain ranges: La Madera, La Fragua and San Marcos. This
mountain ranges help create a valley rich in water. Cuatro Ciénegas is home for more than 10
endemic species that live in the pozas and river. The history of Cuatro Ciénegas’s water goes
back to two main theories, one made by and important English Scientist and another one by the
National Geographic. The first one talks about the valley being part of the Thetis ocean. The
theory says water got stuck between the mountain ranges, some of it evaporated, but most of
it go sucked into huge underground aquifers. The second theory talks about clouds condensing
in the nearby mountains and water being deposited into them which later runs through under
ground channels and aquifers. These theories can complement each other and show us the
origin of the beauty of this valley. The city of Cuatro Ciénegas itself is a small city of 13,013
people which mainly work in agriculture. The tourist attractions of the city include: Poza Azul,
Poza de la Becerra, Rio Mesquitez, Minas de Marmol, Dunas de Yeso and the center of town
which relax and slow going life attracts tourists from all over Mexico.
The investigation done here relies in analyzing hydrology and how water resources are
being used in coordination with water use aspects like agriculture and human interaction. The
focus in the ecosystem and all the aspects that affect the way it works helps get a broad view of
the existing problems between government, conservation institutions and local farmers. The
main objective for this investigation is to find gaps that show where water is being wasted or
where more water is needed. With this helping us to generate a “water budget” that helps
distribute water effectively between ecosystem uses, agriculture, and human use. It is
important to generate knowledge in people about this topic as human beings purely rely on
water and agriculture for subsistence.

Methods
Hydrologic Field Methods
One of the main objectives of this project was to analyze the health of the hydrologic
system at Cuatro Ciénegas. This system includes different bodies of water such as pozas, rivers,
and streams which have unique properties and characteristics that makes them able to give live
to a diverse and endemic types of life. Unfortunately, human manipulation of this system has
brought degradation and destruction to the valley ecosystems, and has put the agricultural
sector in jeopardy. Measuring the level of the pozas/river and river morphology would give us a
better image of the situation, and the further analysis of this date would provide a guideline for
a future solution development. Laura Garza y Helaine Berris will be in charge of this process,
and the data obtained by the levelogers will complete and feed the analysis softwares such as
WEAP.

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 Measuring water level, our first task, was done by the use of pressure transducers called
leveloggers. These devices are able to calculate the level by determining the pressure at a given
point for a long period of time in different time intervals.

This information is stored in inside the device’s internal digital memory, and the battery
may last up to four years depending on the settings the user establishes. Also it is important to
subtract the atmospheric pressure, which would depend on your given elevation, to have an
accurate result. Finally, to retrieve the information you insert the levelogger to an adaptor that
connects to the computer and passes the date to a software. This tool helps the user to analyze
and compare the date through time and to other bodies of water by enabling the use graphs
and tables.

The Comisión Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas, CONANP, had already located
several leveloggers in strategic places such as Poza de la Becerra, Poza Azul and Rio Mezquites.
They have been storing information for a while and part of our work was taking out the devices,
capturing the data, and reinstalling the leveloggers. Also, we installed new ones, which were
provides by UC Davis, in new locations in Poza de La Becerra and Rio Mezquites. Further use of
this information is not part of our project, but will continue to be useful for the conservation of
the valley’s water.
As our second task, we targeted Rio Mezquites to obtain measurements to characterize
its morphology. As a team we divided duties to be able to strip down the river into transects
and to obtain the bankfull width, the thalweg, and the elevation using the level and stadia rod
for these last ones. For the transects first, we took the average of three widths of the river so
we could calculate how many there would be. This was done so we could find a distance
between transects that could be representative of the river’s canal. After we marked all the
cuts, some of us went in the water to measure each individual width and the thalweg with the
level. Finally, we used the level to measure the rivers elevation.
With all the recollected data we estimated the distance between transects, the slope,
and the width/distance ratio. These calculations are reported in the result section. This allowed
us to classify the river in its own category with the Rosgen Classification Methods for Streams in
figure 1 and 2. One of the data we left out was the velocity, which we did calculated when we

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analyzed the Poza de la Becerra and the canals. We were not mentioned the reason why, but
we think it may be due to lack of time or our that information was already in other databases.

Figure 1. Rosgen
Classification
Methods for
Streams.
Source: Rosgen,
D. L. (1994). A
classification of
natural rivers. Catena, 22, 169-199.

Figure 2. Level I classification of stream type. Source: USEPA

Farmer Interview Methods

Agriculture plays a big role in Cuatro Ciénegas economic, social, and natural background,
and is one of the main users of the valley’s water resources. To be able to analyze weather the
agricultural practices from today contribute to the depletion of this resource, it is necessary to
talk the farmers and see their approach on this topic.
For this section of the project, we organized semi-structure interview methods. This type of
interview makes a friendlier approach to the farmers and encourages them to speak freely

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without feeling attacked or pressured. It leaves out the traditional question and closed
response by introducing open-end questions that don’t guide the interviewed to a specific
response. Given that we didn’t know what to expect of the interviews, this type benefited us
because of the kind of information obtained. We had a guideline for the interview, but the
farmers gave us valuable information that wouldn’t had come out with a traditional
information. Some of the information was:
 Stories and memories about older members of the farmers’ families.
 The farmers’ view on the hydrological situation of their own ejido and valley.
 Their interaction and disputes with organizations such as Pronatura, CONANP,
and SEMARNAT.
 The ejido’s needs.
 The evolution of the agricultural practices for their own ejido.
 Their economic and social problems.
 The reason why most of the farmers grew alfalfa even though in some places
water is very scarce.

Even though this methodology benefits this type of interviews, it also has flaws. In the next
table we present strengths and weaknesses we observed and encountered as we did our field
work.

Table 3. strengths and weaknesses

Strengths Weaknesses
Makes the interviewed feel comfortable. The interviewed can easily lose focus.
Obtained valuable information that wasn’t The interview may be long and the
in the guideline and adds to the interviewed can get tired.
investigation.
Works in social scenarios. You can miss some of the important
information that performing direct
questions can give you.
Makes people that aren’t familiar with
technical terms understand all the topics.

We applied 6 different activities so that important and relevant information for the
study could be obtained. These were simple and dynamic so the farmers could easily
understand the topics and guide us through their thoughts and concerns. The activities done
during these days were:
1. Regional Map: We worked together with the ejidatarios in each ejido to identify
geographically where their farming lands are.
2. Individual Map: Each ejidatario drew the important points for them such as the
water sources, streets, lands, canals or pipes, and their house.
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 3. Calendar: Each ejidatario scheduled their yearly agricultural activities and
practices.
4. Timelines: Each ejidatario highlighted the most important events in the branches
of natural events and social/community development.
5. Ranking: Each ejidatario ranked in order of importance several natural aspects
such as pozas, trees, plants, aquifers, air, and animals.
6. Venn Diagram: Each ejidatario specified the necessities, barriers, and solutions
of the ejido.

The interviews were performed in four different ejidos that are all located in the Valley of
Cuatro Ciégas. These are Cuatro Ciénegas, La Vega, El Venado, and Antiguos Mineros. A total of
twenty ejidatarios were interviewed, and our team interviewed four people.

Table 4. Description of the interviews

Topic Description
Interviewed The interviewed were
 José Meraz
 Tomás López
 Dionisio Coronado
 Oscar Sanchez
Date of the interview June 18th and 19th of 2019
Place of the interview Three of the interviews were in the fields,
but one of them was in the ejidatario’s
house.
Duration of the interviews In average, the interviews lasted 45
minutes.
Size of the interview team Our team is conformed of four people.
Responsibilities The roles of the team member were:
 2 members were the interviewers.
 1 team members was the note
taker.
 1 team member was the material
organizer

Results
Hydrology of Cuatro Cienegas
Poza Azul
For this poza we can see that the water level in the last 2.5 months has decreased
considerably by an 32.9%. The water temperature has had a minimal change.

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Table 5. Poza Azul water level

Level Result (m)

Lowest 0.1618
Highest 0.2413
Percent of change 32.9%

Table 6. Poza Azul temperature.

Temperature Result (C)

Lowest 31
Highest 33.2410
Percent of change 7%

Figure 3. Poza Azul levelogger results.

Poza de la Becerra
For this poza we can see that the water level in the last month has stayed gone up. This
may be attributed to the weir implemented by Pronatura at the start of this year. The
temperature of the water has had a minimal change. The first and last atypical date in the
levelogger result was due to the time they were installing it and taking it out. These results are
not relevant so they will not be taken into account for this report. Also, we can’t be certain
what the minimum temperature and level were.

Table 7. Poza de La Becerra water level

Level Result (m)

Lowest Uncertain

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 Highest 0.7916
Percent of change ---------------

Table 8. Poza de La Becerra temperature.

Temperature Result (C)

Lowest Uncertain
Highest 33.7180
Percent of change --------------

Figure 4. Poza de la Becerra levelogger results.

Poza Churince
For this poza we can see that the water level in the last 2.5 months has decreased
considerably in a 31.2% and the water temperature has increased by 2-3 degrees. The
percentage of 24% is due to the atypical temperature of 22.3150 degrees. This may have been a
cold front the 31st of March.

Table 9. Poza Churince water level.

Level Result (m)

Lowest 0.2600
Highest 0.3784
Percent of change 31.29%

Table 10. Poza Churince temperature.

Temperature Result (C)

Lowest 22.2360
Highest 29.3150
Percent of change 24.148

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Figure 5. Poza Churince levelogger results.

Morphology of Río Mezquite

The obtained results, showed in table 1, gave path to the classification of the river. We
used the maximum values of the slope and the width/distance ratio and compared the them to
the values of the Rosgen Classification Methods for Streams. We obtained stream type E with a
H20 slope < 0.02 and a W/D ratio < 12. Then we identified the Cross Section and Plan View in
figure 2, and they also matched to stream type E.

Table 11. Rio Mezquite morphology measurements

Distance
Bankfull Thalweg Elevation between Slope
Transect W/D Ratio
Width (W) (T) transects
(E) (D) (S)
Upstream to
Dow nstream
(m) (m) (m) (m)
1 29.5 1.69 3.15 30 0.98333333
2 29.5 1.7 3.2 30 -0.00133333 0.98333333
3 29.4 1.73 3.29 30 -0.002 0.98
4 34.75 1.75 3.24 30 0.002333333 1.15833333
5 34.62 1.7 2.87 30 0.010666667 1.154
6 33.1 1.72 3.2 30 -0.01033333 1.10333333
7 29.13 1.94 3.35 30 0.002333333 0.971
8 30.27 1.67 3.33 30 -0.00833333 1.009
9 33.5 1.72 3.345 30 0.001166667 1.11666667
10 37.2 1.65 2.845 30 0.014333333 1.24
Maximum Value 0.014333333 1.24
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Table 12. Quick results.

Classification Type
Stream type based on max values of slope E
and W/D ratio
Cross Section E
Plan View E

Agricultural Atmosphere

Table 13. Agricultural Atmosphere of Cuatro Cienegas

Jose Meraz Dionicio Oscar Sanchez Tomas Lopez

Coronado
Differences in  2 Acres  12 Acres  17 Acres  7 Acres
maps  Tank  Tubed water  Water from  Water from
reservoir from tank Becerra’s Becerra’s
 Few animals reservoir. Canal. Canal.
in his house.  Greenhouse  Small tank
 Biolab for reservoir.
worm  Goats, hens
compost. and pigs.

Crops Alfalfa Alfalfa, Corn Alfalfa, Walnut Alfalfa

Tree

Water Sources 16 hours a 12 hours a 12 hours a 8 hours a month

and Use month tubed month tubed month from from Becerra’s
from tank from tank Becerra’s Canal. Canal which he
reservoir. reservoir. storages in his
own tank
reservoir.

Value of Natural Importance Importance Importance Importance

Resources order: order: order: order:

1. Ground 1. Pozas 1. Pozas 1. Pozas

2. Plants 2. Aquifers 2. Ground 2. Trees
3. Air 3. Air 3. Plants 3. Aquifers
4. Animals 4. Ground 4. Animals 4. Ground
5. Aquifers 5. Plants 5. Aquifers 5. Air
6. Pozas 6. Trees 6. Air 6. Trees

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 7. Trees 7. Animals 7. Trees 7. Animals

Economic Sells each lot of Sells each lot of Sells each lot of Sells each lot of
Factors alfalfa for 70-80 alfalfa for 70-80 alfalfa for 60 alfalfa for 70
pesos. pesos. pesos. pesos.

Support No support from Receives Received money No support from

any monetary help from any
organization. from ProNatura government for organization.
for looking out worm compost
for their ranch. tanks.

Interactions None. Receives Angry at them Angry at them

with monetary help since they since they
Organizations from ProNatura restricted the restricted the
for looking out water flow they water flow they
for their ranch. received by received by
placing the weir placing the weir
at Becerra Poza. at Becerra Poza.

Challenges  Lack of  Lack of  Lack of  Few Water.

water Machinery. water.  Price issues
permits.  Lack of  Lack of and lack of
 Lack of rain. irrigation technology. technology.
systems.

Barriers  Ejido council.  Lack of  Professionals  Lack of

 SEMARNAT economic do not help. government
and markets.  Government funds.
CONAGUA  Everything is interests.  Ecological
restrict done institutes
almost manually. place
everything.  Lack of restrictions.
 Lack of terrain
ability to dig inclination
their own for drip
well. irrigation.

Solutions  Better  Better  Government  More water.

technicians. government funds.  More
 More funds.  Technology technology.
government  More application.  Government
help. machinery to help.

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  More helps better use
toward the land.
Ejidos.

Discussion
Water Levels from Pozas & Morphology of Rio Mezquite and its
Agricultural Patterns
The results of the leveloggers in the Poza Becerra, Poza Azul, and Poza Churince only
gave us data of 3 months of the year. For Poza Azul and Churince, the graph showed a
considerable drop in the water levels, about 27% in average. If we only considered this data it
could seem that the pozas are in crisis, and if this trend continues, they could disappear in a
short time. However, to have a correct picture of the situation we need to have at least 10
years of data. With this information we could see the hydrologic cycles of the pozas, how they
go up and down in level trough the seasons and years. Also we could start to see a real trend,
one that incorporates this cycles so they could be disregarded as level changes. We could also
see how the increase in agriculture, climate change, and conservation strategies would affect
this bodies of water. This first two factor will add pressure to the system, and could lead to a
downfall on the water levels. On the other hand, conservation may have a positive effect as we
saw in Poza Becerra. Here the water level rose and maintained constant, which means a
healthier system. We have to take in to account all the factors that can affect directly or
indirectly the water system of Cuatro Cienegas so we can have a complete picture and be able
to take action and propose viable solutions.
Human intervention is one of the main factors that has and will continue affecting the
water system in the valley. Its connectivity has been torn in several points, such as the riverbed
near Poza Becerra called Rio Garabatal. Until recent years, the outflow of this poza continued
its path and fed the Garabatal which was tributary to Rio Mezquite. Today, this connection is
broken and has no flowing water which in the end, dried up the whole Garabatal. This event
was primarily caused to the overuse of the Becerra’s water for human need such as agriculture
and urban uses. Its consumption is not formally regulated and a lot of farmers don’t have the
right to that water and still benefit from it. This causes irregularity because the use overpasses
its recovery rate. In other words, the human utilization of this resource has exceeded its loading
capacity disturbing the natural state of this delicate interconnected system. Our field work in
Rio Mezquites and calculations of the slope and W/D ratio helped us categorize the river.
Knowing the stream type is important because it leads to a further characterization of its fauna,
vegetation, cycles, and properties. Also knowing the type of ecosystem in which the river is
located helps understand the ecologic functions and demands the river satisfies. Integrating all
this knowledge will give a specialist the tools to implement unique and focused restoration
strategies in the valley. These ones have to be directed into reserving an ecologic flow

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necessary to maintain the balance and connection in the Cuatro Cíenegas hydrologic system
and also leaving water for human consumption.

Main Crops in Cuatro Cienegas

After talking for a couple days with the farmers and visiting La Vega, El Venado and Ejido
Cuatrocienegas; we could find patterns in crops and the history they have shown towards
agriculture in the region. All of the farmers talked us about how ground here is great for a
variety of crops. In the past the region was well known for growing corn, wheat, beans, peppers
and many other vegetables. The problem came when alfalfa was the only crop with a
demanding market. Wheat became expensive to process, peppers and corn had very bad
markets and were sold for so little money that it became more expensive for farmers to harvest
them than what they would receive from sales. Alfalfa however, had a very demanding market
from nearby milk farms that required tons of this. The problem grew when everyone started
growing alfalfa which is the crop that uses the most water by far out of all of the ones they used
to grow. The ones who bought alfalfa started to lower prices as everyone was selling it and they
had many options. Alfalfa is now sold at even 60 pesos per bunch rather than the 220 it started
on when the demand was higher. The water it uses became a problem not only because it uses
a lot, but everyone was growing it. Large companies with renamed families from Mexico bought
terrains in the area and placed alfalfa farms as well. This created a large water demand issue in
the region which carried with itself a necessity of it being addressed before it became an even
larger problem.

Social Dynamics of Cuatro Cienegas

The social dynamics of Cuatro Cienegas are divided into three main groups: Farmers,
Ecologists and Government. This groups differ from each other since they have different
interests, views and ways as of the problems and needs of the community.
The first group is composed of farmers, these tend to be in the D+, D and E
socioeconomic sector and work in the field in committees called Ejidos. This committees focus
in generating dialogue to maximize the ground, water and social benefits for themselves.
People from this group depend mostly of their daily incomes and argument that they need the
water resource to maintain themselves alive. Tomas Lopez, a farmer from ejido Cuatrocienegas,
said: “I understand that the water levels must go up and they need to restrict water usage, but
understand us, our chickens still need grains”, referring to his need of capital to maintain a float
his family with two little kids. This farmers value ground and water as their top resource,
whether it is water from a poza or an aquifer. They think air and trees are important as well for
their practice but do not care much about animals and plats of the regions. They are usually
angry at ecologists as they think they want to take their water resources away from them.
Therefore, some farmers have created their own illegal canals or wells for their own good. They
feel the government doesn’t care much and forgets about the farms which as they say, is the
basis of humanity.
Ecologists, in the other hand, focus in the environment and preserving not only the
ecosystems but also the water as a resource that is key for human development. This group is
composed of important organizations like ProNatura, SEMARNAT, CONANP, etc. This
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organizations are very important as they regulate the permits, rights and moderate the usage of
natural resources. Their main focus in Cuatro Cienegas is to distribute water effectively
assigning a “water budget” that serves for agricultural, environmental and human uses. This
organizations have set a strong posture in the city as they entered and started to stop all of the
farmers that had no water permits while they continued to pressure the government towards
preservation of the water in the region. The main things they have accomplished in the recent
years is that they placed a wier in the Poza de la Becerra, which has increased the poza’s level.
This angered many farmers in the zone who claim they now receive less water as the wier
restricts the water flow they receive in large quantities. Ecologists however say that the wier is
not restricting water flow and will give the same water in the long run. This problem however
has raised certain tension between both sides. The effect from the ecologists is very positive on
the environmental side but had affected some farmers as of the economic side.
The government functions as a moderator between this two and tries to give grants to
keep both parts happy and maintain a balance between the two counterparts. The government
tries to settle a balance by granting support to both parts and tries therefore to generate a
balance. They do not intervene much with nature and think they are moderators of this two
groups.

Conclusions
Jsjs

Recommendations/Limitations
Even though our project is limited by time, we hope that the recommendations mentioned in
the following section will help our advisors develop future solutions for Cuatro Cienegas.
1. Further analysis of the hidrologic system has to be done. The use of softwares like WEAP
will help integrate data gathered from the economic, social, and natural sectors and see
how they interact as a whole. For this task, we need missing information such as
 Detailed consumption from the primary sector.
 Detailed consumption for the urban sector.
 Detailed information of the water treatment system in Cuatro Cienegas.
If this information is known, a thorough analysis can be done by introducing it into
WEAP.
2. Avoiding the monoculture of Alfalfa is a crucial due to the high water demand of this
crop and increasing market competition between all the ejidatarios. All types of crops
have to be grown and sold so each ejidatarios can have a favorable income and diminish
the water consumption.
3. Finish the started and implement new pipe systems in the valley. Water loses can be
seriously reduced and the ejidatarios will receive more water.

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 4. Invest in advanced irrigation system, such as drip and sprinkler, to reduce the water loss
and benefit production.
5. Training for the ejidatarios in subjects such as crop rotation, irrigation systems, and
sustainable practices.
6. All the water grants have to be registered and in order so CONAGUA can have a real
data of the consumption in the valley.
7. Flux sensors have to be installed in the ejidos’ pipe infrastructures so there can be a
realistic register of the daily water consumption.
8. Investment in a water treatment plant is needed to take care of grey water problems in
the city. This will reduce the sanitary issues and the problem of waste water infiltration
into the aquifers.

Barriers that could come up when implementing these solutions may be:
1. No money for investment.
2. Change in government representatives.
3. Misunderstandings between involved agents. (PRONATURA, SEMARNAT, CONAGUA,
government, ejidatarios)
4. Problems of social cohesion and development.

Appendix
Ejido Cuatro Cienegas
“Si no tenemos agricultura sustentable, no tenemos una sociedad saludable.”
“Picando y haciendo.”
“Se necesita lograr un equilibrio físico, químico y biológico.”
“Ya no hay agua, los demás están aferrados a que necesitan más agua para producir.”
“Con la sustentabilidad habrá más empleos.”
“Es muy difícil subsistir con los cultivos, por eso también se tiene la ganadería.”

Ejido la Vega y el Venado

“Aquí hay la misma agua que había hace 60 años”
“Se sigue regando por rodada porque no hay tanta gravedad” – This means that the waterhole
isn’t high enough, they can’t take advantage of the potential and kinetic energy of the water to
move it through the pipes.

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References
jaja

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