MCALLEN, Texas - Jim Darling, chairman of Region M Water Planning Group, gave an update on Mexico’s release of water to the United States at a recent McAllen Economic Development Corporation quarterly stakeholders meeting.
Darling said water levels in Amistad and Falcon dams are much higher than they were a couple of years ago.
“We haven't had a report from Mexico for the last two cycles, two months and two weeks, because I think there's some internal discussion going on as to how much they want to release. So they're figuring it out. But they did release water under some pressure from the White House. And so we went up to 26.84 percent in the reservoir system, which is significant,” Darling explained.
“About this time year and a half ago, we were down to 19 percent. So, we are up.”
Darling said one thing he wanted to point out is that most of the water in the Amistad and Falcon reservoir system is owned by irrigation districts in the Rio Grande Valley. He said about 80 percent is distributed by the irrigation districts whilst municipalities have access to about 20 percent.
“Even though we're at 26 percent (in the reservoir system), some of the irrigation districts are at 60 or 65 percent (capacity). Those are the heavily urbanized districts. There is over a million… 100,000 acre fee of water rights are in (irrigation) districts that are at more than 50 percent (capacity),” Darling said.
“And then you have a lot of districts that are down to 17, 18, 19 percent. These are the ones that are not urbanized, so they're still using the water for irrigation. It would take a big fight in Austin to try to recalculate how we're going to do water rights.”
Another important factor to consider, Darling said, is that under the 1944 Water Treaty, two-thirds of the water that Mexico releases into the Rio Grande goes to Mexico and one third to the United States.
“The treaty says for every acre-foot they release out of Mexico, we get one drop of water while the State of Tamaulipas gets two drops of water. They get two for one.”
This fact has “really hurt Mexico and put pressure on them,” Darling said.
“When they did the treaty in ’44 there were no reservoirs, so they couldn't hold the water in Mexico. So it was released and the United States had some water in the Pecos and Devils rivers. So, two for one was a natural thing to do, because there was no pressure on Mexico and the waters got released. And so we got one drop, and they got two drops.
“Well, now that there are reservoirs… and they heavily use water use in that portion of Mexico. So, every time they release water to us… they had a revolt in Chihuahua. The President didn’t carry Tamaulipas, and so he really didn’t care too much about releasing water.”
Darling was referring to former Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the fact that every time Mexico released water from the reservoirs in Chihuahua to repay its debt to the United States, twice as much went to Tamaulipas.
“That treaty needs to be redone based on that two for one, because it puts too much pressure on Mexico to release water,” Darling said.
In fact, Darling said, the last time Mexico released water they did it on one to one basis. “They had a riot,” he said. “So, anyways, (at the moment) we are okay with water.”
Darling also brought up the subject of drilling for groundwater.
“Groundwater is a really active thing right now. Everybody wants to do groundwater. There was a report in 2014 that said there was 112 million acre feet of laterally saving groundwater that can be treated. But we have to use reverse osmosis. You cannot just use chemicals.”
Darling said the upfront cost of having to use reverse osmosis is higher but the operating costs are lower because a municipality does not have to use chemicals to treat the water. “So, Region M, (and) everybody (else) is adding groundwater to their strategies so they are eligible for state grants.”
Darling said the City of McAllen has plans to build a regional groundwater plant. “They already have interconnects with all the adjoining cities for emergency purposes. They are now providing some water, not emergency supplies, to some of the cities that are low on their water rights. The plan is to build a groundwater plant (that is big) enough to have regular water agreements with the surrounding cities.”
Another person at the stakeholders meeting that gave a report was customs broker Jorge Torres. He gave a report on industry. Responding to Darling’s report, Torres said water sharing between the U.S. and Mexico “will be on the table” when the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is renegotiated next year. “It is going to be a key factor, how they settle that,” Torres said.
Darling was asked if any analysis has been done on whether the Rio Grande Valley would have enough water in the future to take on major industrial projects, should the region continue to grow at its current projections.
“That shouldn't be an issue,” Darling answered. “You can turn sewer water into reuse water (for the industrial plants).”
