MCALLEN, Texas - Former McAllen Mayor Jim Darling has welcomed state Rep. Terry Canales’ decision to make water his No. 1 legislative issue going forward.
Canales is perhaps best known for chairing the House Committee on Transportation and helping to bring tens of millions of dollars to the Rio Grande Valley to build and upgrade roads.
But at a recent Rio Grande Valley Partnership event, Canales pledged to make water his top priority henceforth and urged the other leaders in the region to do the same.
Canales said the Texas House has, due to retirements, lost two experts on water in state Reps. Lyle Larson and Eddie Lucio, III. He said he, along with his legislative staff, was now getting up to speed on the issue.
Darling, an attorney, is the longtime chairman of the Rio Grande Regional Water Authority and considered a leading authority on water issues in the Valley.
“I am pleased to learn Terry is focusing on water. It needs to be a priority. We do not have a lot of state support. Lyle Larson, I know what he did. And I know what Eddie Lucio did. The chairman of TCEQ is also participating but we could do with more support,” Darling said.
TCEQ stands for Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Its chairman is Joe Niermann.
Darling said that while there is a need to develop water infrastructure in the Valley, “at the end of the day the Valley’s water comes out of Mexico.” He noted that Mexico is currently behind in the transfer of water to the United States under a 1944 international water treaty.
“It is hard for the state (Texas) to go to Mexico and say help us when we're doing all these other border issues that are just not perceived as being friendly (to Mexico),” Darling said, referring to Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to place concertina wire in the middle of the Rio Grande, among other things.
“So, hopefully, Terry is going to take the lead. I think he's got great leadership ability. Maybe we'll get something done,” Darling said.
Darling said he deals with the International Boundary and Water Commission, a binational federal agency that handles Rio Grande treaty rights.
“I know TCEQ has been involved. So, yeah, hopefully that (Mexico’s transfer of water to the U.S.) gets done. There are some solutions but it's really up to Mexico to agree to them. So I think that's where pressure has to come from, somehow. IBWC is a very small office in a federal agency. I don't see much support coming out of Washington, either.”
It was pointed out to Darling that at the Rio Grande Valley Partnership’s big economic development summit in Edinburg last year, which was attended by Gov. Greg Abbott, no mention was made of water.
“I know. The drought has already hit agriculture significantly. Farmers have to make a decision on whether to plant, especially vegetables. And they’re not going to do it if they only have one watering availability.”
Darling said agriculture is still “huge” in the Valley but it gets little attention because of the growth of the cities.
“We’ve already seen agriculture being affected significantly. You see people being laid off. The sugar mill, I understand, last year didn't operate. So yeah, it is just very serious.”
Darling said that if water levels in the Falcon and Amistad dams go under 20 percent, cities have to impose every other day watering restrictions on residents.
“These are things that probably should be done all the time. It's kind of ironic, the utilities don't like it (asking residents to go to every other day watering) because they don’t make as much money.”
Darling said there are things the Valley can be doing right now to address the water issue.
“I think if we pay attention to how we use water here, if we get into more water reuse, if we retrofit our sewage treatment plants and put water back into the systems, especially with irrigation and your lawns, like they are doing at Tres Lagos, we could overcome some of the serious drought problems.”
Tres Lagos is a masterplanned community in north McAllen.
But, for agriculture, Darling said, it’s very difficult.
“If they spent more money, maybe they would be more efficient with their watering. But they don't do it very often. In the Valley it is still 78 percent agriculture and 22 percent city water. We (the cities) have the bottom of the reservoir,” Darling said.
"The real issue, once agriculture is cut off, is getting our water here. There was a study but nobody has implemented the solution yet. My biggest worry is once we have Ag water cut off.”
Darling said a study was undertaken in 1998 soon after the drought of record. Water levels in Falcon and Amistad were down to 19 percent.
“But we had hurricane. We don't seem to have hurricanes anymore.”
Darling, who hails from Rochester, New York, has been in the Valley for 42 years.
“Every ten years, we face the same (U.S.-Mexico water treaty) cycle but we have a hurricane. Well, we haven't had a hurricane or even a decent tropical storm in 12 years. So, we’ve hovered at under 50 percent (capacity in Falcon and Amistad dams) and now we're hovering at around 20 percent, and have been for the last two years.”
Darling has an important message for Valley leaders if they do start making water their top priority.
“You can't wait until you run out of water then try to do the solutions. And that's what we do. Except for praying for hurricanes. Go and say a rosary for a hurricane.”
Darling said he would be happy to talk to Rep. Canales.
“I think it's great that Terry is paying attention. But when you're down to this level (20 percent capacity in Falcon and Amistad dams) even money doesn’t help. Unfortunately, the time you need to do it (make infrastructure investments) is when you’re not in an emergency situation.”
