Combs Views Mexico
Water Deal Harshly

AUSTIN — Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs last week termed the recent Mexican water release agreement a "bad deal for Texas and an insult to the agricultural producers and all the citizens of the Rio Grande Valley."

"What the agreement boils down to is merely a ‘contingency assignment’ of 90,000 acre-feet from the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs and is a conditional payment on Mexico’s 1.5 million acre-feet debt," Combs said. "If you take a look at the conditions, once again Texas and the Rio Grande Valley come up high and dry.

"Most significant," she added, "the payment is contingent on whether the 90,000 acre-feet is offset by water flowing from Mexican rivers into Amistad and Falcon reservoirs by Oct. 26. For example, if only 50,000 acre-feet flows into Amistad and Falcon reservoirs from Mexico by Oct. 26, then the United States is required to credit Mexico with 40,000 acre-feet of our water," Combs said.

"In addition, Minute 308 requires the United States to credit Mexico with 28,845 acre-feet of water for conveyance losses from evaporation and seepage, so at best, Texas only nets a little more than 60,000 acre-feet," Combs said.

"This is too little, too late and too unbelievable.

"Our position from the very beginning is that Mexico owes us the water, and they should have started transferring the water months ago when it would have helped farmers and ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley.

"What’s even worse," Combs continued, "is that while Mexico has refused to release the water it owes the United States, Mexico has also been illegally diverting water from the Rio Grande at El Mulato, which adds up to 36,000 acre-feet per year.

"This is water robbery, and the token release is nothing more than an old-fashioned ‘confidence game’ with the Texas Rio Grande Valley as the victim," Combs concluded.