Gravity-fed acequias and aqueducts — channels, flumes, and culverts that move and share water with no pump and no power. San Antonio was founded on this system. We build it new. The first Site Read is free.
Gravity-fed · no powerHeritage craftFree Site Read
San Antonio is an acequia city. Before the dams, before the mains, the Spanish and the Indigenous peoples who built this place moved their water through acequias — open channels that carried it from the river to the fields by gravity alone. Some of those channels still run after three hundred years.
It is the most elegant water infrastructure ever built here, and almost no one builds it anymore. We do. An acequia needs no pump, no meter, and no outlet. It runs in a blackout. It costs nothing to operate. And it shares water — across a property, between neighbors, through a garden — the way water was always meant to be held in common.
This is heritage and engineering at once. Done right, an acequia is the most beautiful and the most useful thing on a piece of land.
§ 1 · How we build
Survey the fall. Follow the land.
An acequia is a conversation with the grade. Gravity does all the work, which means the survey is the project. Too steep and the water scours the channel; too flat and it stalls and silts. The craft is finding the exact, consistent slope from source to destination — and carrying it across every dip without losing it.
Shoot the levels. We survey the fall from the source to where the water needs to go, and confirm there's workable, consistent grade to run on.
Set the slope. The channel is cut to a precise grade — enough to keep the water moving, gentle enough that it doesn't cut its own bed.
Line or leave it. Earthen where the soil holds and seepage feeds the ground; stone, lime, or sealed where the run needs to stay tight.
Span the gaps. Where the land falls away, a short aqueduct, flume, or culvert carries the channel across so it keeps its grade.
Gate the water. Headgates (compuertas) and distribution gates let you open and close the flow — send water to the garden today, the orchard tomorrow.
§ 2 · What we build
Channel, span, and gate.
Built
Irrigation acequia
The main run — a graded channel that carries water from a high source to the garden, orchard, or field by gravity.
Built
Aqueduct spans & flumes
Carry the channel across a low spot, a wash, or a path without losing its slope. Where the structure becomes the landmark.
Built
Culverts & crossings
Take the water cleanly under a drive or walk and back to grade on the far side.
Built
Distribution runnels
The branches — smaller channels that split the flow out to beds, trees, and a huerta garden.
Built
Headgates & compuertas
The controls — open, close, and direct the water by hand, the way it's been done for centuries.
Built
Feature runnels
Acequia logic at courtyard scale — a moving channel that connects a fountain to a basin and reads as living water.
§ 3 · The tradition we keep
Water held in common.
The acequia was never only a ditch. It was a social contract. Communities shared a single channel, took water in turns, and once a year gathered for la saca — the communal cleaning of the acequia that kept it running and kept the community tied to it. The water was held in common, and so was the responsibility for it.
We build in that lineage, not just to its blueprint. An acequia on your land can carry that logic forward — water that's visible, shared, and stewarded, instead of metered and hidden. For larger and shared projects we set up the seasonal maintenance rhythm with you, so the channel keeps running the way the old ones did: cleaned, watched, and used.
§ 4 · What drives the cost
Honest about the number.
Every acequia is shaped to its own land, so there's no catalog price. Four things set it:
Length of the run. How far the water travels from source to destination.
The grade. Forgiving, consistent fall is cheaper to build than land that forces spans and corrections.
Earthen or lined. Sealed and stone runs cost more than earthen channel, and last differently.
Structures. Headgates, aqueduct spans, culverts, and distribution gates each add to the build.
We shoot the levels and set the real number at the Site Read. The first on-site read, with a written recommendation, is free.
An acequia is a gravity-fed irrigation channel — the water-moving system the Spanish and Indigenous peoples built across the Southwest, and the system San Antonio itself was founded on in the 1700s. It carries water from a high source to where it's needed using nothing but a carefully surveyed slope. No pump, no power, no meter. Done right, it can run for generations and double as the most beautiful element on a property.
Why build an acequia instead of running irrigation pipe?
Three reasons: it needs no power, so it keeps working in an outage and costs nothing to run; it's visible and alive, an amenity rather than buried pipe; and it can share water across a property — or between neighbors — by design, the way the historic acequias did. It's the right call when you have a grade to work with, a water source up top, and you want infrastructure that's an asset to look at, not a line item to hide.
Do you need a slope for an acequia to work?
Yes — gravity does the work, so the channel needs a consistent, surveyed fall from source to destination. The Hill Country's grade is an advantage here. Part of the Site Read is shooting the levels to confirm there's workable fall and to set the precise slope; too steep and it scours, too flat and it stalls. Where the land dips, an aqueduct span or flume carries the channel across so the water keeps its grade.
What's the difference between an acequia and an aqueduct?
An acequia is the channel that carries and distributes the water at grade; an aqueduct is the structure that carries that channel across a gap — a low spot, a wash, a path — without losing its slope. Most projects use both: an acequia for the run, and a short aqueduct or flume wherever the ground falls away beneath it.
What does an acequia cost to build?
It's set by the length of the run, the grade, whether it's earthen or lined, and how many structures — headgate, aqueduct spans, distribution gates — it needs. Because each one is shaped to its specific land, we price it at the Site Read after shooting the levels. The first on-site read, with a written recommendation, is free.
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Book a Site Read.
We walk the land, find the source, and shoot the fall to see what's possible. Written recommendation in 48 hrs. No charge — the first Site Read is free.