MCALLEN, Texas – The scarcity of water in the Rio Grande Valley could force Hidalgo County to form a groundwater district, County Judge Richard Cortez has acknowledged.
Speaking at a McAllen Citizens League luncheon, Cortez confirmed that the availability of water is one of his biggest challenges.
“We’ve had the cheapest water almost anywhere in the United States here for many, many, many years,” Cortez said. “But the tributaries that bring the water into our (Rio Grande) river… we’re seeing 20 percent less coming in.”
As a result, he said, “we are going to have to find some alternative sources of water.”
However, there is some good news, he said.
“The good news is that there is availability of fresh ground water, but since we haven’t been using it a lot over a period of time, we’re going to have to learn how to properly use it. I believe that I’m going to have no choice but to maybe form a groundwater district for the county. Because the way it works today, if you own the land, you own groundwater.”
Cortez said he wants to make sure there is no misuse of water rights.
“We want to make sure that all of our municipalities and everybody has the use to that (groundwater).”
Cortez said the Valley can no longer rely 100 percent on the Rio Grande for its water needs.
“One of the concerns that all of you should have is that we can’t create more water on the river. We can only go for brown (brackish) water. That’s going to take time between by the time that we put in the infrastructure, to be able to pull sufficient water for use.”
Cortez said county leaders have been meeting with all the cities to discuss the best way to conserve the water the Valley does have.
“I wanted to bring to your attention the different drought stages that we have. We are at 20% right now, which means we’re at a critical stage. I hope we never move to the next one, to the emergency stage.”
By way of an example, Cortez spoke about the water needs of a golf course,
“Here’s where we all need to pay attention. Because as we start moving through these different stages. This is the action that we’re contemplating on taking,” Cortez said.
“Arguably, the golf course is a luxury. How dare you use water for a golf course, right? I think everybody would agree with that. Okay. But we want to be careful when we pull the trigger, because if we destroy the golf course by prematurely keeping them from watering, we’re destroying millions and millions and millions of dollars that we cannot recapture right away. So, we have to be very careful when we pull the trigger.”
Cortez said there is no Book of Wisdom that county leaders can access.
“We have to sit down together and put our heads together as to what is the appropriate way to distribute water. I use the golf course (example) because when I saw this here, they were thinking, as I said earlier, how can you use water for a golf course. But you have to think of economic consequences going forward.”
Cortez added: “So, I want you to know is that we’re looking into all of these things. We’re going to try to come up with the best way to conserve and allocate the water that we do have. But it is a problem.”
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