The Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas is suffering the impacts of extreme drought from two sources: natural and manmade. There’s not much that can be done about a lack of rainfall, but when drought is exacerbated by political decisions, something CAN and SHOULD be done. Here’s the background:

Mexico is once again failing to comply with treaty provisions governing equitable water‐sharing in the Rio Grande basin, despite the fact that it has sufficient supplies held behind dams in northwestern Mexico. Under terms of a 1944 treaty with the United States, Mexico is supposed to release water from its side of the Rio Grande into that waterway for use by the U.S. — specifically, a minimum average of 350,000 acre‐feet of water annually.

The same treaty also apportions waters in the Colorado River basin between western U.S. states and Mexico. While the U.S. has always — without fail — met its annual requirements in the Colorado, historically, and particularly in times of low rainfall, Mexico has repeatedly not lived up to its end of the deal on the Rio Grande. It has consistently failed to provide the minimum annual inflows into the Rio Grande required under the treaty. And although the treaty allows provides for flexibility in situations of extreme drought, those conditions have not affected the portion of Mexico that contributes water to the Rio Grande since May 2012.

Currently, Mexico has a water deficit to Texas of more than 471,000 acre‐feet of water, enough to meet all municipal demand in the Valley for about a year and a half.

The burden of this significant deficit falls first on irrigated agriculture. Already, several irrigation districts in the Valley have had to curtail delivery of water from the Rio Grande to their farmers, resulting in a severe impact to the economic pillar of the region.

Birding and eco-tourism are other economic drivers in the region that suffer under exacerbated drought. Many diverse and endangered species depend on the waters and habitat of the Rio Grande and the irrigation canal systems; low flows in the river threaten both the animal and plant species native to the region as well as migrating birds.

Even municipal deliveries are in danger. Most cities and towns in the Valley rely on the irrigation canals to move their water from the river to their treatment plants. Curtailing irrigation water means that flows for municipalities, which are normally conveyed with larger volumes of irrigation water, lack the necessary “pushwater” to propel supplies to their destination.

Not even half way into 2013, several municipal water suppliers have been notified that lack of pushwater may curtail their water deliveries.

Ten years ago the Valley suffered through the same problem until the issue was resolved by tropical storms that filled up the reservoirs on the Rio Grande AND meaningful intervention from the White House and the State Department. In 2002 alone, the Mexican water deficit cost Texans more than 3,000 jobs and $105 million in lost personal income.

South Texas cannot afford a repeat of that disaster. And we cannot count on rain — in whatever form — to resolve the real need for Mexico to properly manage and account for users of water resources covered by the treaty, including water users in Texas.

Please join in calling on President Obama and the U.S. State Department and its International Boundary and Water Commission to (1) secure Mexico’s compliance with the intent of the 1944 Treaty, (2) resolve the mounting water deficit, and (3) ensure that Mexico henceforth treats Texas as a primary water user when planning and executing water deliveries within the Rio Grande Basin.

The health, welfare, and economic stability of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and all its inhabitants are at stake.

More information at http://www.texansfortreatycompliance.org