LA VILLA, Texas ( Border Report )- As this area struggles with drought, authorities experiment with how to convert drain water into potable water in these rural, agrarian cropland called the “delta” in deep South Texas, where water is regarded as “liquid golden.”
On Thursday, leaders unveiled a captain rehabilitation programme they’ve been working on for several years, that, if approved, would be the first in the Lone Star State to turn salty wild waters into potable water for homes and businesses.
Local leaders on Thursday literally turned on a test tap, drawing in water that had been drained and held from rainwater and drainage ponds and turning it into what they hope is drinkable. The project is called the Delta Region Water Management Project.
Locals are optimistic that the water will flow freely in the future thanks to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ )’s approval and state funding, but the plan is still in the works.
” This is a significant occasion for the Rio Grande Valley and beyond as well as for Hidalgo County.” And this comes at a crucial time for the RGV amid disaster declarations, according to Hidalgo County Precinct 4 Commissioner Ellie Torres to a crowd of people gathering under a tent for Thursday’s event.
Hidalgo County Precinct 1 Commissioner David Fuentes, who has been in charge of this reclamation project for a number of years, hosted the event.
Originally, the plan started as a way to capture drain water and rain runoff to prevent flooding. This delta region is prone to flooding, and Fuentes says floods in 2018 not only affected Hidalgo County, but water also caused damages in nearby Willacy and Cameron counties, on the Gulf of Mexico.
Traditionally, infrastructure here has relied on piping excess water to the Gulf of Mexico. However, then officials began to consider whether it was instead captured, treated, converted, and used again.
The plan grew even more urgent as drought started to ravage this area in recent years.
Due to “exceptional drought,” Hidalgo County received a disaster declaration on April 10. Last week, county commissioners extended that order indefinitely.
Mexico, which has n’t paid the annual water allocation it owes to the United States under a 1944 international treaty, is to blame for the water shortage as well.
Officials in this country are unsure that the water will be sent north because the five-year treaty is set to end in October 2025 and only one year’s worth of water has been paid to the Rio Grande by Mexico. And so they are diligently looking for other ways to conserve, clean, and provide water.
This water resource is being used for potable in-ground water use in people’s homes or businesses by using drainage water. This will give us a lot of water right now, which we are in desperate need of,” Fuentes said.
The plan calls for the construction of four specialized water treatment facilities, three in Willacy County and three in Hidalgo County.
Fuentes claimed that the Hidalgo County drainage line’s end would be near La Villa, which means the first would be constructed on these lands outside La Villa. Once the water’s approval and the facilities are constructed, starting the process would allow all Hidalgo County communities to have access to it.
” The fact that the water plant we’re proposing at this location would be a 5 million gallon-per-day plant is impressive.” That would enable it to provide drinkable water to 5,800 homes annually. Water that they can use inside their homes. That’s roughly 15, 000 people. So it really is a game changer”, Fuentes told Border Report.
Hidalgo County has purchased 225 acres for this project.
The property’s tanks and machinery are already converting the water and transporting it to a test-holding facility, where a white trailer is located.
500 people were without jobs after the state’s only sugar mill shut down in Santa Rosa, a farming town close to the state’s only sugar mill, earlier this year due to a lack of water needed to transport the thirsty crops. And it made officials here understand just how crucial this pilot project is.
Fuentes said,” Had this been a resource at the time then we could possibly have saved some of those jobs.”
” This water is liquid gold”, Torres said. This reclamation project is forward-thinking and rethinks how storm drainage in our area is perceived.
” This is something that’s never been done and capturing flood waters to revitalize to them where they can be used for different purposes, including at some point consumption, it’s almost impossible to tell you how important this is”, Texas state Rep. Terry Canales, D- Edinburg, told Border Report.
If the plans are approved, the county will need much more money to start its testing project, which it initially received for$ 25 million.
On hand Thursday and both showing support for the pilot project were the area’s two Democratic state senators: State Sen. Juan” Chuy” Hinojosa, of McAllen, and Morgan LaMantia, of Brownsville, who vowed to support the Legislature convenes in January.
You all decided to think outside the box after figuring out a problem we had in the Valley, LaMantia said. ” We, in Austin, now have the easy job of just getting some funding and bringing down a check. The work was done in its entirety.
” It is amazing that this is the first one here in the State of Texas”, said Hinojosa, vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
We are aware that water is a crucial component of life, economy, and the challenges we face across the State of Texas, not just here in the Valley, but also across the state. We, as a state, have made it a priority to fund these grants and projects”, Hinojosa said.
Canales chairs the House Transportation Committee. He said he’ll put his full force behind this initiative, as well.
” South Texas will advance only when people think this,” said Canales. ” This innovative thinking is part of the solution”.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at [email protected].
