Water Rights War Rages on Faltering Rio Grande (original) (raw)
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- April 19, 2002
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April 19, 2002
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On a desolate stretch of beach on the border with Mexico, Randy Blankinship steps along what should be the edge of the Rio Grande. Except there is only sand. The river that for thousands of years flowed into the Gulf of Mexico now falls almost a hundred yards short.
''That's the mouth of the mighty Rio Grande,'' said Mr. Blankinship, a state wildlife biologist, with a touch of sarcasm. He knows the joke that the sandbar is the newest international bridge into Mexico. Apparently the Border Patrol is not laughing -- an agent is parked nearby.
That the Rio Grande is no longer strong enough to reach the sea is just another example of the crisis that threatens the river and the international region that depends on it. Years of drought have left the area parched. A water war between farmers on both sides of the border has escalated into an international standoff.
Demand for water is increasing in an area that has historically ranked among the poorest in the nation but is now trying to capitalize on growing trade with Mexico. Population is exploding on both sides of the border as new industries have been established in the past decade.
''For the longest period of time, the Rio Grande Valley has had a water policy in which we hope and pray for a moderate-sized hurricane every 8 to 10 years that would bypass the Valley, land in the watershed and dump in the reservoir,'' said Judge Gilberto Hinojosa of Cameron County, the highest elected official in the county, which includes Brownsville. ''That isn't a water policy.''
If water shortages are familiar throughout the nation, the problem here is compounded by the complicated codependence of Mexico and the United States. The primary tributary of the Rio Grande is the Rio Conchos, which flows out of the high desert of Mexico and fills the reservoirs that provide water for American farmers. Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico is supposed to send about 350,000 acre-feet water annually into the Rio Grande, or billions of gallons. The United States, in turn, releases 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to Mexico. (An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.)
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