Mexico fails to deliver water to U.S.: Broken deadline: Agricultural leader pushes for sanctions

Mexico fails to deliver water to U.S.
Broken deadline: Agricultural leader pushes for sanctions.

AUSTIN, Feb. 7, 2003 — A South Texas farmers’ leader has called on legislators to impose sanctions on Mexico after another failure to meet a water repayment deadline.

Gordon Hill, general manager of Bayview Irrigation District, told members of the Senate International Relations and Trade Committee that it was time for Gov. Rick Perry to "take action" to protect the Rio Grande Valley’s agricultural base.

Under an agreement reached last month, Mexico was due to release 55,000 acre-feet of water to the United States from reservoirs in Chihuahua on Jan. 30.

The deadline came and went without a repayment, though Mexico did transfer about 129,000 acre-feet of water to the United States from its account in the international Amistad and Falcon dams. Mexican officials had agreed to transfer 182,000 acre-feet.

"I am not sure Valley farmers, or our legislators, are aware that Mexico has broken its promise again, Hill said. "Mexico has three million acre-feet of water in its reservoirs in Chihuahua but it will not open them up. How are we ever going to settle this if Mexico keeps lying to us?"

Hill also reported that a U.S.-Mexico meeting on the long-running water dispute slated to take place in San Diego, Calif., had been postponed because Mexico could not agree on an agenda.

"Whatever sanctions can be imposed, the Valley farmers will appreciate it. We need everybody to stand together because livelihoods are at stake. I was pleased with the response of the senators," Hill said afterwards.

Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico is required to deliver an average of 350,000 acre-feet of water per year to the United States, mostly from the Rio Conchos Basin in Chihuahua. In return, the United States must deliver 1.5 million acre-feet of water per year to Mexico from the Colorado River.

While the United States has complied with the treaty, Mexico, claiming extraordinary drought, has fallen behind in its repayments since 1992. Mexico owes the United States more than 1.37 million acre-feet of water.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs told the committee that in 2002, Valley cotton production dropped 40 percent and grain sorghum 29 percent. She said that in contrast to 2001, when 54,000 acres of corn were planted, not a single acre of commercial corn was cultivated in 2002.

"This water debt has cost the South Texas economy at least $1 billion in economic losses, 30,000 lost jobs, 100,000 lost irrigated acres, and an estimated $11 million in crop-sale losses for each year of the last 10 years," Combs said.

"In contrast, we know from reports from Mexico’s own agricultural agencies and from satellite images that agriculture is thriving in the state of Chihuahua, and that reservoirs along the Rio Conchos are brimming with water."

Combs also told the committee that the Texas Department of Agriculture had completed mailing out 1,862 federal assistance checks comprising a total of about $10 million in federal aid to South Texas.

The checks were mailed out Jan. 27 and cover a total of 455,388 acres, with each acre receiving a reimbursement of $21.77. Farmers’ actual losses in 2001 were estimated to be about $259 per acre.

"Clearly, $21 an acre does not even come close to fully compensating our producers for their losses. However, it should help offset some of the losses," Combs said.

Most of the aid – more than $8 million - went to Cameron and Hidalgo counties for 376,431 acres. Other counties receiving aid, Combs said, were Starr, Willacy, Maverick, Webb and Zapata counties.

State Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, who chairs the International Relations and Trade Committee, praised Combs and Hill for their testimony.

"I want to commend Commissioner Susan Combs for working tirelessly to see that our South Texas farmers receive compensation for some of their losses through the federal agricultural assistance funds and through NADBank," Lucio said.

"However, I was disheartened to hear Gordon Hill tell us once again that Mexico has not complied with its agreement to release water by the end of January. I will make the water debt one of IRT’s priorities to make sure we do everything we can at the state level to pressure Mexico into compliance with the water treaty."

The International Boundary and Water Commission announced last week that Mexico transferred 129,551 acre-feet of water in Amistad and Falcon dams.

Hill and Combs agreed that due to rains, few Valley farmers will need to irrigate before they plant because they now have good soil moisture.

"However, as we go into summer, 600,000 acre-feet of water from Mexico will still be needed by our citrus, sugarcane and vegetable growers," Combs added.

And here, in El Paso, we are being told we will be "out of water in 20-25 years", even though we sit right on a major aquafier.

Regards

Let's see, their people are invading our land, their military is firing on our border guards on US ground, they're meddling and interferring with our domestic policies, they are overloading our health, social and school systems. They are a major factor in the illegal drug trade. What shall we do? I know, let's have a war with Iraq.

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