Editorial: Valley officials must combine their efforts, and resources, to address our water crisis

Parts of the Rio Grande Valley have had a bit of good luck in the past couple of weeks with regard to our ever-worsening water shortage. The region was spared the brunt of Hurricane Beryl, which shifted north and caused widespread flooding and power outages in the Houston area. Our water needs have been so great that some people actually hoped the storm would hit us.

Fortunately, the days since Beryl have brought several rainy days to the Valley. It’s been steady enough to ease our parched region but not hard enough to cause the kind of flooding that plagues the area during many storms.

Unfortunately, the storm’s shift moved the rainfall away from the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs that supply South Texas. Those reservoirs remain at historically low levels.

Valley officials need to keep that in mind; when the rainy days end and our land starts to dry out, our water crisis will pick up right where it left off in early July.

That crisis is only made worse by drought conditions that are even worse in Mexico. A 1944 water-sharing treaty between our two countries requires that each allow a certain amount of water to flow from their tributary rivers into the Rio Grande. For the past several decades Mexico has built dams along those rivers and depended on natural rainfall to help the country meet its water obligations. That rain hasn’t come, and Mexico is years behind in its compliance. That has hurt Valley farmers who depend on the water to irrigation. It’s killed our billion-dollar sugar cane industry and threatened our citrus crop.

Sadly, Valley officials historically have acted much like their Mexican counterparts, panicking when conditions are dire but doing little when we get welcome — but brief rains.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this time.

We’ve had a water crisis since the decade-long drought of the 1990s. It’s forced ranchers to burn thorns off of cacti to feed their livestock and farmers to invest in new irrigation systems or switch to dryland crops that didn’t need so much water. The losses have cost the Valley’s economy billions of dollars — losses that could have been mitigated if they had taken some action before now. They could have lined or covered our network of open canals that lose up to one-fourth of their water to seepage and evaporation. Some efforts have been taken, such as a desalination plant in eastern Cameron County, but it started as a small, pilot effort that needs expansion.

Many local officials have said their small communities can’t afford the cost of finding or developing new water sources. However, this is a regional problem and it needs a regional approach. No city can go it alone, but they can combine their efforts and resources to find more reliable sources of water that can serve them all.

Working together won’t just help provide seed funds for groundwater extraction or retention pools that can capture more rainwater. A united front also has a better chance of convincing state and federal policymakers to provide whatever assistance they can.

Surely, officials can find several options to help us address our water needs. But it isn’t going to happen if they don’t start working together.

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