The new agreement gives Mexico more ways to deliver the water it owes to the U.S.
DALLAS — Some desperately needed water will soon start flowing into Texas, with the potential to provide dramatic relief to south Texas farmers.
The United States and Mexico recently amended an 80-year-old water treaty, giving Mexico more ways to deliver water to the U.S.
“It may be a bandage, but we have to stop the bleeding on the wound or we’ll be seeing the mortician,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told us on Inside Texas Politics. “We don’t want to die as a state, so it may short lived, but it gets us to fight another day.”
Commissioner Miller first sounded the alarm about Texas’ water woes a couple of months ago on Inside Texas Politics and in an op-ed he wrote outlining the problems and possible solutions.
He told us then that Texas was basically out of water, especially in the Rio Grande Valley, where production of staples such as tomatoes has been devastated. In the Winter Garden Region of South Texas, Miller says farmers have enough water to grow only one crop of vegetables when they usually grow five.
According to the 1944 water treaty, Mexico must provide 1,750,000 acre-feet of water from six tributaries to the U.S. every five years.
But Mexico still owes the U.S. more than 1.3 million acre-feet of water, due by October 2025.
Under the amended treaty, Mexico can now also deliver water from the San Juan and Alamo rivers, which were not a part of the original six tributaries. It can also deliver water it has stored at the Amistad and Falcon international reservoirs.
Miller tells us both developments are significant for Texas.
“If they can pay half their water debt, it’d probably make us happy. We’d love to see half of it. That’ll let us fight another day,” said the Commissioner.
Miller says the changes will help many cities up and down the Rio Grande river, and put farmers in much better shape as they head into fall and spring planting.
However, the exact amount that will come from the new sources has yet to be determined.
Even with the amended treaty, there is much more to do to address Texas’ water woes, and Miller says there is no one, simple long-term fix. So, he argues lawmakers must take a “shotgun approach” when they reconvene in Austin in January for the next legislative session.
“First thing we’ve got to do is address our infrastructure. We’ve got old infrastructure,” stressed the Commissioner. “Some of our cities still have cast iron water lines, galvanized water lines. We’ve got to get those where they don’t lose 30% of the water.”
Beyond that, Miller wants to look at desalination plants, rainwater harvesting, building off-channel storage to capture water during high rainfall events, and even building more lakes.
While it will be expensive, the commissioner describes it as a smart investment and Texas will see a return and get its money back. And he tells us the Texas Water Development Board already has billions of dollars to play with.
Miller is also one of President-elect Donald Trump’s top allies in Texas.
While he says he’s talked frequently with the Trump transition team, it’s been focused on recommendations and vetting for Senate-approved appointments at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Miller says it has not been about a specific position in the administration.