Water expert Jim Darling gives an update on the Rio Grande Valley’s most pressing issue

4 hours ago 21

EDCOUCH, Texas – Elsa Economic Development Corporation hosted the Delta Area Summit on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.

The event attracted leaders from the three Delta area cities of Edcouch, Elsa, and La Villa. It was held at Edcouch-Elsa ISD’s high-tech Technology Building.

One of the guest speakers was former McAllen Mayor Jim Darling, in his capacity as chairman of Region M Rio Grande Regional Water Planning Group.

Darling covered a lot of ground in his remarks. He spoke about the crisis farmers face because of a lack of water, the 1944 US-Mexico Water Treaty, the different levels of priority for water resources given to municipalities and farmers, purchasing water rights, drilling for water, desalination projects, and the merger of certain water districts.

On the subject of the Rio Grande Valley’s water crisis, Darling said:

“We’re still hovering around 22% of water in the reservoir system, for where we are now on the American side.

“I always tell people, for cities, we own the bottom of the reservoir. So, we own the bottom 250,000 acre feet. That belongs to the cities. But not quite… you have a little bit of operating reserve. But cities have 100% of water, and actually we have about 200% of water in our system.”

So, while cities are protects, agriculture is certainly not, Darling explained.

“Agriculture is a different story. Ag is down below 10%, no new allocations in the last year and a half. So, if you used your water, you’re pretty well out. You can support corn and sorghum, I guess. And that’s about it for Ag. A little bit for citrus, to keep the trees alive, but not to grow the fruit. So that’s kind of the system. It has not necessarily changed.

As for the 1944 water treaty, Darling said:

“As far as Mexico goes, they made a demand that Mexico pay the water debt. They have no water in the reservoir to do that. They’re below 10% in the reservoir system, so there’s no water for them to do that. And the President of Mexico, she said, well, I’m going to pay the 450,000 acre… if it rains. So, the United States administration said we won. We forced Mexico to do something. And so they did, they made a statement. But no promises until till the reservoir systems will fill up.”

Darling then discussed where the Valley’s water comes from. He said:

“I don’t know if you know about where our water comes from. Actually, each month we increase a little bit for municipal (use) because we have inflow in. The inflow primarily comes out of the Devils River and Pecos River, out of the United States, contributory rivers to the reservoir system. The Devils River comes in through San Angelo a little bit, where it is the Edwards Aquifer. It comes out of the ground. It becomes the Devils River. The Pecos River is out the north and comes into Amistad from the north. And that river has been depleted because it is in a very rural area with not much regulation. So a lot of people divert from that river without permits, etc. It’s hard to enforce it.

“Obviously the Devils River, as a outflow of the Edwards aquifer, has been depleted because of San Antonio’s and even Austin’s growth. So we were thinking at Region M – Region M is right along the river; it goes from Brownsville to Eagle Pass, all along the river counties – we’ve been thinking of maybe filing something, saying we need to get water out of the Edwards Aquifer; that they ought to be more careful with their permitting system and all that. But our board has not authorized us to do that, at this point.

“The other two thirds of the water that we get, and, really, almost all our water comes out of the reservoir system. If you look at the Rio Grande basin, it runs along the river and that’s about it. And south of the expressway is probably where the basin ends. North of the expressway is Nueces River basin. It flows northeast. So, when it rains heavily, here, what do we do with our water? We get it the hell out of here, right? That’s what we do.

“We have two main drains. One, obviously, is the floodway system that protects us from the river overflow, but also acts as a drainage system for the southern part of all our counties, especially Hidalgo and Cameron counties, and it sends it out to the Arroyo Colorado, out to the Gulf through the Arroyo Colorado. The other water, from all the cities, gathers and goes up through the Raymondville Drain as part of the county system. So, when it rains here, it’s beneficial, but only to the extent it wets the soil. We don’t store any of the water, if it rains within our watershed. And really, probably it is not possible, because it sheet flows, so it doesn’t naturally gather. So that’s kind of where we are with the water.”

Editor’s Note: Here is a video recording of Jim Darling’s remarks at the Delta Area Summit, including a Q&A with members of the audience: