McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez has asked federal and state officials to account for two South Texas reservoirs, which he believes are “missing water.”
Cortez on Friday announced that he has sent letters to the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission — which oversees the Rio Grande — as well as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which oversees water rights management via watermasters. He wants to get quantitative data on water that feeds into Amistad and Falcon reservoirs.
This comes a few weeks after a sugar mill — the only one in Texas — shut down due to a water shortage from Mexico’s failure to pay its share of water owed to the United States under an international treaty.
But Cortez says Mexico might not be entirely to blame. According to his inquiries, there could be other leaks in what should be orderly flows of water from north and south of the border,
“We started our analysis by looking at the water that Mexico owes us, but we also realized that mathematically Mexico’s non-compliance with the Treaty of 1944 doesn’t account for all our missing water,” Cortez said in a statement. “So now we need to see where the rest of our water is and why it isn’t reaching us.”
Mexico has paid barely one year’s worth of water owed to the United States during the current five-year water cycle, under an international water treaty. The cycle ends in October 2025 and Mexico is not expected to make its full payments in time.
Cortez last week declared a state of disaster due to the drought and lack of water for this growing border region.
He says his staff is working to come up with “a comprehensive plan of action with water suppliers in our community,” and that means collecting all the data possible on inflows “to the mainstem of the Rio Grande below Fort Quitman” from Mexican and American tributaries, according to a letter he sent April 10 to IBWC U.S. Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner.
Fort Quitman is about 60 miles southeast of El Paso and marks the division line between the upper and lower Rio Grande.
“I am deeply concerned about water availability for my community and Mexico’s continued non-adherence to the terms of the 1944 Water Treaty,” Cortez wrote. “In order to appropriately chart our course of action, we must base our decisions on the best available information.”
Cortez asked Giner to share “any opinion you or your agency may have formed as to inflow trends to the mainstem of the Rio Grande below Fort Quitman from United States tributaries, and any opinion as to the cause of such trend.”
He sent a similar letter to TCEQ Chairman Kim Nygren, in Austin.
The 1944 treaty lays out how both countries divide ownership of water that reaches the Rio Grande from Fort Quitman to the Gulf. Most comes from six tributaries that are completely located in Mexico: the Rio Conchos; Arroyo de las Vacas; Rio San Diego; Rio San Rodrigo; Rio Escondido and Rio Salado, according to IBWC.
Two-thirds of the water from the tributaries belong to Mexico, but one-third is to go to the United States, according to the treaty.
On Monday, Falcon Reservoir was at 266 feet — well below the 300-foot water conservation levels. Amistad Reservoir was at the lowest levels it’s been since 1971, according to IBWC data on the agency’s website.
A 51-year-old sugar mill shut down earlier this year because of not enough water for growers to produce the water-thirsty sugar cane plants. Over 500 people lost their jobs.
Now municipalities in the Rio Grande Valley are worried whether this will affect citrus growers and potentially home customers.
Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with South Texas lawmakers regarding Mexico’s lack of water payments.
Another meeting is scheduled for later this week.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
