For more than a century, the canal system of the Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 1 has directed water from the Rio Grande River to farmers and the nearby cities of Edinburg and McAllen. 

The 27-mile-long stretch is pumped from the river near Peñitas, then gravity takes over, allowing the water to flow both north and east. 

“It’s designed to flow freely. We don’t force the water down here. The elevation every mile; it’s supposed to drop a foot,” Carlos Guzman, general manager of Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 1, told the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal in a recent interview.