Texas will accept water from Mexico, but will require compliance with the terms of the agreement

“Texans living in the Rio Grande Valley need water to grow crops and support local communities and businesses,” Abbott said. “Mexico’s flagrant abuse and disregard of water obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty cannot be tolerated.”

He also said that Mexico’s “offer of 120,000 acre-feet from the San Juan River is just a drop in the ocean compared to the 1.75 million acre-feet Mexico is expected to transfer to Texas” over the five-year cycle required by the treaty . . “Because our farmers and cities cannot wait any longer, Texas is accepting the proposal pending TCEQ’s final approval of operating procedures,” Abbott said.

Abbott directed TCEQ to take over the water after the International Boundary and Water Commission announced that U.S. and Mexican authorities signed an agreement Nov. 7 to ensure regular supplies of water from Mexico to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

The agreement was signed two days after President-elect Donald Trump was elected and after Congress passed legislation to withhold federal aid to Mexico unless Texas receives the water it is owed under a 1944 treaty.

Abbott also argues that Mexico’s water delivery is inconsistent with the treaty because it stipulates that the U.S. and Mexico must share water resources from six named tributaries, including the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers. The San Juan River is not one of them.

“While the International Boundary and Water Commission apparently takes the position that water from the San Juan River can be counted toward Mexico’s five-year obligations under the Treaty,” Abbott said, “Texas stands firm in its position that with the text of the Treaty – that these obligations can only be fulfilled using water from the six named tributaries.”

“Mexico’s deficit under the 1944 Water Treaty has never been greater. Without action from Mexico, Texans will face a projected water shortage of 1.3 million acre-feet in October 2025,” Abbott added.

The agreement comes eight months after Texas sugar producers in the Rio Grande Valley said they had no choice but to close the last remaining sugar production facility in Texas because the federal government failed to hold Mexico accountable for violating the treaty. , The Center Square reports. .

Lawmakers in both the Democratic and Republican parties have urged the Biden administration and previous administrations for years to force Mexico to act, industry officials say, but to no avail.

The Rio Grande Valley is one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the state and country. To grow a wide range of crops, farmers use water from the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers.

To manage the use and conservation of water, Mexico and the United States entered into the Water Use Treaty in 1944. Over the past 25 years, the State Department has failed to prioritize American agricultural producers in South Texas, sugar producers, the agricultural industry and Republican and Democratic lawmakers say, leading to water shortages in the Valley.

The agreement stipulates that Mexico must supply water to the lower Rio Grande Valley in five-year cycles with a minimum average annual volume of 350,000 acre-feet of water, “except in cases of extreme drought or severe failure of its water infrastructure.”

During the current cycle, which began on October 25, 2020, Mexico delivered 425,405 acre-feet of water. Its contractual obligation is to deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water by Oct. 24, 2025, “absent extreme drought or major infrastructure failure,” The Center Square reports.

Amistad Lake and Falcon Dam International Reservoirs had total water storage at 18.76% in June, the lowest on record, according to the IBWC.

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To address the problem, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill in June that called for the U.S. to withhold foreign aid to Mexico until it released the required amount of water. Mexico receives hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assistance.

Republican U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, U.S. Representatives Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburgh, and others have asked for the funding provision to be included in the government’s FY 2025 Foreign Operations Plan. and a related programs appropriations bill. De La Cruz also introduced separate bills to address the problem and called for federal financial assistance to south Texas agricultural producers who have suffered losses due to Mexico’s inability to deliver water.