Water dominates Valley infrastructure forum as leaders press for long-term solutions

There was lots to talk about at the Rio Grande Valley chapter of the Institute for Leadership in Capital Projects’ infrastructure luncheon on Wednesday.

There was the prospect of a new causeway connecting South Padre Island to the mainland. The possibility of nuclear power coming to Cameron County. Hundreds of miles worth of drainage ditches being built that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The topic panelists kept returning to, however, was water.

Drought conditions and record-low reservoir levels have placed water at the forefront of Valley economic considerations as local leaders consider what to do as the resource grows scarcer.

Brownsville PUB Assistant General Manager and COO Mark Dombroski said water scarcity issues will likely take a $10 to $20 billion investment annually to solve the state’s issues. Even then, he said, Texas is likely a decade behind on solving those problems.

“These are long-term projects,” Dombroski said. “Trying to solve this problem next year is next to impossible.”

That doesn’t make water scarcity a crisis everywhere. 

Dombroski said Brownsville thinks it’s got its water needs met for at least the next two decades.

“But it’s gonna require a lot of conservation, a lot of investment, and good planning,” he said.

There are other bright points locally.

Rio Grande Regional Water Authority Chairman Jim Darling said the Valley is actually better positioned than some parts of the state because of its proximity to the Rio Grande and its groundwater situation.

There are 40 million acre-feet of slightly saline groundwater in the Gulf Coast Aquifer, Darling noted, arguing for a regionally collaborative approach.

“We just need to be innovative,” he said.

Darling said he was skeptical about desalination being a financially viable solution for most places at present, but he pointed to other effective strategies, among them conservation.

“We just had a drought of record, and all the cities had to go below 20% conservation levels. And you ask how many cities what their water use was, it never curtailed,” he said. “Because you know why? They’ve gotta pay monthly bills, so they have to sell water.”

When talking about water scarcity, local leaders often point toward Mexico’s failure to honor its obligations under a 1944 water treaty.

There has been some progress on the diplomatic side of the situation as well, according to Darling.

“I think that the threat this last time with this new administration helped and Mexico did provide some water,” he said. “They’re still hoarding a bunch of water. But it’s always gonna be an issue.”