Whitlock: How Elon Musk can help the RGV on Day Two of the Trump Administration

Elon Musk, a close confidante to President-elect Trump, lives in Brownsville, Texas. A number of leaders in the Rio Grande Valley know how to reach him.

I believe Musk can help the U.S. get the water Mexico owes us under a 1944 water sharing treaty. If he would do this the Rio Grande Valley’s agricultural industry can be saved.

How can this happen? Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino, Jr., Brownsville Mayor John Cowen, Jr., and Brownsville City Manager Helen Ramirez are among the Valley leaders that can pick up the phone and have a word in Musk’s ear. Musk then can have a word with Trump. And, if he feels so inclined, Trump could issue an executive order on day two of his presidency to stop water from the Colorado River reaching Mexico. That ought to bring Mexico to the negotiating table. 

I say day two of his presidency because Trump will no doubt be busy with festivities on the day of his inauguration.

Let’s recap why my proposal needs to happen. Under the 1944 U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty, the U.S. must deliver an average of 60,000 acre-feet of water a year to Mexico’s Juárez Valley. This water comes from the Colorado River. During periods of drought, the quantity of owed water is proportionately reduced. 

Under the same treaty, Mexico has the rights to two-thirds of the flows from the six major tributaries that feed into the Rio Grande. Mexico must deliver an average of 350,000 acre feet of water a year to the U.S. via the Rio Grande. 

The treaty also states that the U.S. has the rights to all the flows from Rio Grande tributaries in the U.S. And the U.S. has the rights to one-third of the flows from the six Mexican tributaries to the Rio Grande.

As everyone in the Valley knows, Mexico has not delivered on its treaty obligations. Far from it. By some estimates it is some $265 billion gallons of water behind on its deliveries to the United States. That has devastated our agricultural producers.

But, as Stephen Mumme, a nonresident fellow at the Baker Institute points out, Mexico is currently treaty-compliant. That is because it has five-year cycles in which to make its deliveries. And we are currently in year four. Mumme points out that Mexico’s “erratic pattern of compliance over the past decade has cost Texas farmers, who depend on a reliable water supply.”

The water that should have been feeding the agricultural needs of the Valley, and Tamaulipas, for that matter, has been dammed up on tributaries in Chihuahua to create a fantastic agricultural sector in that Mexican state.

I believe Elon Musk can do something about this. He has influence with our incoming president. He lives in the Valley. Have our leaders reached out to him on this vital issue?

Another recommendation I would make is for the Rio Grande Valley Partnership, which is crafting the Valley’s legislative agenda for the 89th legislative session in Austin, to adopt the recommendation of the Texas International Produce Association. In a recent interview I secured with TIPA’s president, Dante Galeazzi, it was explained how the State of Texas could and should do more. 

The State of Texas should pump $2.5 billion into a scheme to line the 3,500 miles of earthen canals that are responsible for moving 85 percent of the water in the Rio Grande Valley, TIPA recommends. Galeazzi said that $2.5 billion could be matched with a similar amount of federal dollars.

“It is going to cost $5 billion. That’s a huge price tag for anybody,” Galeazzi told me. But if we can get the state to take half and the federal government to take the other half out of the Infrastructure Bill, those monies… now you’re talking about a very different figure. Now you’re talking about something that can have an impact.”

Galeazzi continued: “If we were to line all those canals, that could give us anywhere between 300,000 to 900,000 acre feet of water saved every single year. That is a huge savings.”

The RGV Partnership is bringing dozens lawmakers from around the state to the Valley later this week for its biannual Valley Legislative Tour. RGVP ought to adopt TIPA’s recommendation and highlight it on the tour. After all, the agricultural products grown in the Valley are enjoyed throughout the state and beyond.

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by veteran broadcaster Ron Whitlock. The column appears in the Rio Grande Guardian with the approval of the author. Whitlock can be reached by email via: ronjwhitlock@icloud.com.

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