For Amber Pacheco, a day in water is never the same.
Pacheco is deputy general manager of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, and to say her world of water contracts, discharge decrees, compact compliance, water law, and subdistrict management is complicated would be an understatement.
She spends every day running around, meeting with people, hosting discussions, solving problems, and dealing with the ups and downs of the water world. On this day, she went on to meet with freshman Rep. Jeff Hurd, gave a presentation about water to a Women in Ag group in Monte Vista, and spoke with community members and partners trying to solve subdistrict issues, like a recent problem that popped up with county tax notices.
Pacheco recently celebrated her 20th anniversary with the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, having started back in February of 2005 as an administrative assistant. The way she describes it, she “kind of just fell into the job,” connected through a friend consulting with the district.
With a background in accounting, working in water wasn’t her goal. She was an administrative assistant, or bookkeeper, and her role consisted of administrative tasks, accounting, helping to manage the board, taking meeting minutes, and more. She’d be the first to admit that she didn’t know much about what was being discussed. But, she was fascinated by these conversations, and made the choice to dive head-first into the water world.
“When she started the job, she didn’t really know a thing about water, not a drop,” said Greg Higel, a lifelong rancher and the current president of the RGWCD Board. Higel started with the district in 2000, and has known Amber for two decades. “She just grabbed the horns, held on, and took off.”
Pacheco immersed herself, attending meetings, taking notes, asking questions, and going through meeting minutes all the way back to when the district was formed in the 1960s to learn as much as she possibly could. Luckily, the district was small at the time, and the community was close – maybe even a bit too close.
“When I got started here, we used to be housed in an office in the Bureau of Reclamation on the east side of Alamosa and so we would have 60 people sometimes crammed into a very small conference room for meetings. When I say immersed, it’s like they were breathing down your back talking,” Pacheco said with a laugh.
These meetings helped to get her feet wet, and allowed her to ask all of the “dumb questions,” always met with respectful and informative responses from the community.
“I’ve watched her grow from the beginning and she wasn’t ever scared to jump in and talk to people about water. If she didn’t understand something she didn’t step out of bounds, she went and educated herself and then came back understanding,” Higel said.
Pacheco emphasized the important role of mentors, like former district manager Ralph Curtis, who, along with other community members, helped her learn, corrected her if she made mistakes, and guided her along the right path.
The Rio Grande Water Conservation District was founded by the Colorado General Assembly in 1967, with the goal of improving water management, developing water resources in the Rio Grande River basin area, and protecting the water rights of citizens in the San Luis Valley.
In Pacheco’s 20 years there, the district has experienced some big changes, and she has evolved right alongside it. She has held every position in the district, starting as the administrative assistant, and then progressing to office manager, running finances, budgets, and grants. She then took over the role of deputy program manager, program manager, and now her current position as deputy general manager.
In this time, she’s played an integral role in some of the districts’ most impactful projects, including the creation of the subdistricts.
There are currently seven subdistricts. Each subdistrict has its own board of managers, and members made up of local well owners and irrigators. These groups discuss and dictate water management plans in their areas. Every subdistrict has its own funding source, based around member contracts and fees.
For a long time, the district had been acting solely as a political entity, focused on ensuring compliance with the Rio Grande Compact, which provides equitable water access from the Rio Grande downstream to New Mexico and Texas.
But when a state engineer in the late ’90s was required to shut down wells on the South Platte River, local irrigators and the district board saw it as a major concern for the area, potentially devastating for the agricultural economy, and for cultural heritage. This sparked some changes.
The district wanted to create a way for grassroots efforts and communities to try to solve water management problems before the state had to step in and solve them. The passing of Senate Bill 04-222 in 2004 laid the path for this to happen, and it came in the form of subdistricts.
In 2005, when Pacheco joined the RGWCD, Subdistrict 1 was in the process of being formed. She witnessed what was a long and arduous process, getting the Subdistrict 1 water management plan approved through water court, which took six years, and finally passed in 2012. The area covered by SD-1 at the time was nearly 165,000 irrigated acres of high-value crops like potatoes, barley, and alfalfa that were in dire need of help because of a bad groundwater situation left by the 2002 drought. Its approval led the way for other areas to follow.
A few years later, as deputy program manager, Pacheco oversaw the creation of subdistricts 2-6 from start to finish, and managed the operations of five of them. By 2020, all seven subdistricts were operational.
“If it was just a job, no one would be working in water. It’s very challenging. You give up a lot. I give up a lot of time with my family, but I’m willing to do it to meet people where they’re at.”
amber pacheco
Through efforts like the creation of the subdistricts, the district has become much more in touch with the community. Rather than acting as a political entity controlling things from above, just a name on people’s tax forms, the district is on the ground and actually touching the water and talking to people.
“People know us, they’re coming into our office talking to us daily. That’s new for us in the last decade. That’s not what was happening before,” Pacheco said.
Talking with community members and farmers is a large part of what Pacheco does day to day. But this part of the job isn’t always easy. Especially when she started, Pacheco said that having tough conversations about water scarcity and money was difficult. She said one of the hardest things she’s ever done at the district was certifying fees for the county assessor’s office, and knowing that she was responsible for sending millions in fees to working people across the Valley.
“I’ve been connected to the Valley my whole life. It was really hard for me to even have to have these types of conversations with people,” Pacheco said. “I take [what I do] very personally, and when I’m working with farmers and other water stakeholders, I really want them to know that I don’t just work here. I do care. It affects me personally and it’s not just a job to me, even though I’ve been accused of that many times.
“If it was just a job, no one would be working in water. It’s very challenging. You give up a lot. I give up a lot of time with my family, but I’m willing to do it to meet people where they’re at.”
Pacheco described another experience, just a few weeks ago, when she was sitting at someone’s coffee table, talking about risks to their wells as they expressed fear about their ability to join the subdistrict and protect their water access. Pacheco said that in conversations like this, she tries to emphasize that while the district doesn’t have all the answers, it is there to help in any way it can. These types of conversations have become more frequent, especially as droughts and decreases in snowpack have worsened.
“When you don’t see snow in the mountains, it feels like we revert back about a decade in time. It’s like people forget we were making progress and they get nervous and panic a little bit,” Pacheco said. “We spend a lot of time talking to people, explaining that we understand, explaining what we do know, what we’re working on, and the new ideas we have.”
Informing stakeholders, but also being there to assure people that they are not alone in their struggles, and that the community is working to solve problems together is crucial, and Pacheco excels in that role.
“She’s very important to water right now in the Valley. She’s well respected, everybody likes her, loves her, and respects her. She’s kind of the glue,” Higel said. “I think she’s keeping everybody calm, at least from the subdistrict side of things.”
When she started the job, she didn’t really know a thing about water, not a drop. She just grabbed the horns, held on, and took off.
Greg Higel, a lifelong rancher and current president of the RGWCD Board
Though Pacheco didn’t grow up in the water world as a farmer or rancher, she’s a Valley native, having grown up in Monte Vista. While some might see this lack of early involvement as a spot of disconnect, others view her unique entrance into the water world as an asset.
“Amber is a good leader to the water community because she doesn’t have ties to water. She’s not a farmer or a rancher or anything. She has a totally different perspective, and the way that she grasps everything is amazing,” Higel said.
Pacheco also described how her unique background, while maybe not super applicable on paper, has come in handy in her current role. Forming the subdistricts, as well as other projects, has required coming into an existing entity or community, and learning what was important, and why things were going the way they were. Then, these systems were taken apart and put back together in a way that addressed the issues in a more functional way. This process is very similar to walking into a company as an accountant and trying to figure out its finances.
“You know, I never would have thought it, but it’s a very analytical thing to be in water. You gotta be a little creative and a lot detailed. Reading the fine writing between the lines and trying to understand where people are coming from and where they’re trying to go,” Pacheco said.
Her perspective has been especially useful as the district has tried to build a better relationship between all of the water stakeholders it serves in the Valley, including farmers, ranchers, conservationists, environmentalists, and government actors like the Bureau of Land Management, Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
There’s still sometimes tension, but things have changed greatly in the last few decades. There is a lot more cooperation now than there was. Pacheco said that until recently, she didn’t even realize how much tension there used to be in the Valley over water issues.
She said there was a time when people were storming out of meetings and yelling. A lot of people didn’t believe that the subdistricts could work or that the district was working with their best interests in mind. But that has largely changed, and a lot of those people who were initially hesitant are now part of subdistrict boards, working with the district.
The urgency of water issues in the Valley, especially with growing climate pressures, has increased.
“It kind of forced everyone into a room where they had to recognize each other’s concerns and worries and issues. It put them at a table together where they could listen respectfully,” Pacheco said.
It’s not perfect, and Pacheco said there are definitely times where she sees things fall apart a little bit. But that’s when people can step back from the table, gather their thoughts, and come back later.
“We’re at a point where it’s “‘check your ego at the door.’ That time is gone. The fighting wasted 20-30 years of really getting a hold of our water administration here,” Pacheco said. “I think people are understanding that we fought for so long, but we could’ve just been trying to listen to each other.”
From the subdistricts to individual projects, the Valley’s water world is collaborating a lot more often. Projects like the conservancy district’s headwaters restoration project incorporate environmental groups doing river restoration, and work to improve water irrigation infrastructure for farmers and ranchers. Restoring the river helps the broader region because of the environmental and wildlife benefits, but it’s also helping fix the headgate so that irrigators get better water deliveries.
“People who never thought they would work with an environmental group are actually happy they were able to cross that line,” Pacheco said. “It’s not been without downfalls, you know certainly not everyone’s happy. We recognize we have a long way to go, but I do think it has improved immensely.”
We’re at a point where it’s ‘check your ego at the door.’ That time is gone. The fighting wasted 20-30 years of really getting a hold of our water administration here. I think people are understanding that we fought for so long, but we could’ve just been trying to listen to each other.
Amber Pacheco
When Pacheco started, there were three people working in the district. Now, there is a staff of 13. They’ve moved offices, and expanded to their own building. With all seven subdistricts now successfully operating on their own, the district is able to shift its focus in new directions.
In a way, the district is shifting back into a more political role, building connections and relationships, dealing with compact issues, state water issues, and getting more involved in bigger conversations. The district is still going to be on the ground, just in a different way.
One big issue that Pacheco and the district have been working on is Colorado Senate Bill 28, and the Groundwater Compact Compliance Fund. This fund has allocated $30 million to incentivize and pay local farmers to permanently retire more groundwater wells. This aims to reduce groundwater pumping in the region. The effort has been successful so far, and nearly all of the $30 million has been spent, retiring around 11,296 acre-feet of water.
The district continues to work on the Rio Grande Compact, hosting the annual compact meeting this year in Alamosa, on April 25. The meeting allows commissioners to meet and share reports on their states, as well as general operations and plans for the future. This district will also host a talk at Adams State University before the official meeting, with local Valley attorneys explaining the history of the compact and what it does, with the goal of helping the community to understand it better.
The district is looking at how it can help by facilitating new programming and grant funding. While the district can’t necessarily fund big projects, helping by connecting local people and groups with USDA grants, and other sources is the goal. The district is also continuing to build education initiatives, working with organizations like the Salazar Rio Grande del Norte Center at Adams State to teach classes on water and natural resources.
And the district supports tech and science projects like the new weather radar at the Denver airport, and other initiatives looking at improving forecasting and snow monitoring.
As the district looks to continue adapting and changing, Pacheco also continues to evolve. She said one thing that she’s been working on is prioritizing a work-life balance. She realized after attending a Water Education Colorado leadership program that she wasn’t balancing properly, and she’s looking to change that. Work takes up a lot of her time, so when she can, spending time with her husband, kids, and grandchildren is important. She also loves travelling, spending time outside, especially in the Valley, working on a committee for the city of Monte Vista, and volunteering when she can.
She’s an amazing colleague and friend, and absolutely dedicated to the success of the district.
Cleave Simpson
Pacheco’s professional role has also shifted a bit in the past few years. District general manager Cleave Simpson also currently represents District 6 as a Colorado state senator. As he splits time between these two roles, he is often not around to run the office. In his absence, Pacheco becomes acting general manager and takes over those responsibilities. She is currently filling that role, as the Colorado state legislature is in session January through May.
“With Cleave gone, she runs the district,” Higel said. “There’s no official title that she’s the general manager, but she’s running the district now.”
The past few months have been an especially turbulent time. The Trump Administration has brought about a multitude of changes on the federal level, and Pacheco said she is hearing increasing concerns from stakeholders about how these changes will impact them. Specifically, water conservation and sustainability issues, along with changes to tariffs and federal contracts, are threatening farmers and livelihoods in the Valley. These concerns are going straight to Pacheco, who is managing everything at a crucial time.
Simpson expressed his appreciation for Pacheco stepping up into the leadership role. “She’s just been a godsend to me, a lifesaver. While I’m at the General Assembly, having her there gives me great comfort,” he said. “She’s an amazing colleague and friend, and absolutely dedicated to the success of the district.”
There has been talk that the general manager role could eventually open up, should Simpson choose to leave and focus on politics or managing his own farming operation. Simpson said he doesn’t have long-term political aspirations, but it’s a possibility that’s been discussed. In that case, many think Pacheco would be the natural choice to fill the potential opening.
When asked, Pacheco expressed interest in the job.
“I would be honored if they would select me to be the general manager, but I also know that the board would have to look at it when that time came to see if I was right at the time for that position. I’ve certainly taken the steps personally and professionally to try to prepare myself for that role.”
Pacheco referenced the work she’s done in the district with constituents, as well as outside of it, meeting with the compact partners in New Mexico and Texas, talking to congressional representatives in in Washington, D.C., meeting with the heads of the Bureau of Land Reclamation and USDA, trying to forge respectful relationships from the local level up to the federal level.
“I would hope it would be a natural progression, but I certainly understand that it’s a very important role for the district and I would probably be one of many who would be interested in it,” she said.
While people might be interested in the role, few are likely as prepared for the job. Pacheco has held every role in the organization and is its longest-serving employee, having spent two decades working under nearly every general manager the district has ever had.
“In my opinion, she’d be the only person I’d want to take over. She’s grown with the district and she can do everything. I bet she could even go out and read the wells if she put her mind to it,” Higel said.
