Recent research shows that reservoirs across the country are facing lower levels, and that their storage is becoming less reliable. New reporting from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas finds a pair of reservoirs in that region are facing similar problems. In this case, though, it appears to be a bi-national problem, with both the U.S. and Mexico sharing in the blame.
Berenice Garcia, Rio Grande Valley reporter for The Texas Tribune, joined The Show to talk about what she’s found and what the current situation with reservoirs in her part of the world.
Full conversation
BERENICE GARCIA: So, the reservoirs that feed into the Rio Grande River, or the Rio Grande, that supply water to the Rio Grande Valley region here. They're the Amistad reservoirs and the Falcon reservoirs, and right now, they're still at pretty low levels. They're not at the record levels that they had reached back in June, but they're still pretty low.
The Amistad Reservoir is at 21% capacity while the Falcon Reservoir is at 12%. And so, what that has meant for communities down here is they are, you know, they still are in water use restrictions. Cities across the valley have issued those restrictions on residents, which basically will tell them to, you know, not to irrigate their lawns on certain days and things like that.
MARK BRODIE: Is this a surprise that the reservoirs are where they are right now?
GARCIA: It's not a big surprise, maybe because this has been an issue for, for several, several years. The Mexican government has been unable to really fulfill their duties under the 1944 Treaty, in which they are supposed to release some of the water that they have into the reservoirs.
So, it's an ongoing issue. I think people have seen this coming for many years and they've been trying to get Mexico to sort of catch up with the water that they owe. And it's been difficult because Mexico is also dealing with the same ... conditions, you know, the drought doesn't end at the border.
BRODIE: Yeah. What have those conversations been like between maybe us or Texas officials and, and those in Mexico about trying to, to get Mexico to fulfill its obligations here?
GARCIA: They've been, they had been ongoing for several months. They had been trying to negotiate what's called a Minute, which is an amendment to the 1944 Treaty, and so we've had congressional leaders, a congressman, I know who represents the Rio Grande Valley. He's you know, he's met with leaders at the highest levels of the Mexican government and they've assured that they are going to make that amendment official.
As the treaty is sort of worded now, Mexico is supposed to deliver a certain amount of water within a five-year period. But, the way that they want to change it, it would, it would set more accountability and they would have, it would change it so that Mexico would be meeting those requirements every single year.
BRODIE: But, if Mexico doesn't necessarily have the water to send, what are the other options?
GARCIA: Yeah, that's a good question. I know that the IBWC, they've been really pointing out the fact that the Rio Grande Valley unfortunately is too dependent on the Rio Grande and it's very important and what they're trying to do is stress that it's very important to find other alternatives. So, what you have here in the region is water supply corporations, looking to other sources such as groundwater, they're looking at the aquifers.
BRODIE: Is some of the shortage here also because of water that should have been deposited into these reservoirs from American sources? Like, is it all just Mexico's fault or are there some American sources that are a little short here as well?
GARCIA: So, yeah, that's, that's a great point. It isn't just the water that Mexico owes the U.S., that's sort of been dwindling. It's also water from the American tributaries, I suppose, or the influence from the U.S. that are supposed to go into the Amistad Reservoir and the Falcon Reservoir that have been decreasing over time.
BRODIE: Yeah, that's an interesting point, because I wonder how much has to happen, or what has to happen, for these reservoirs to get back to a place where maybe people aren't super worried about them anymore.
GARCIA: Yeah, it would take much more than just Mexico complying with the treaty. You know, it goes back to the need to diversify their sources of water. I was speaking to a meteorologist earlier this year, you know, when farmers in the valley were really, really looking for rain and hoping that, you know, a storm or even a hurricane would be able to provide the water that was really necessary for their dwindling crops.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, we really didn't get a big rain event this summer, which is great for, you know, for most of the residents who don't want to have to deal with flooding and, and the dangers that come with that, but as for people in the agriculture business, it was really disappointing because it was their last hope, at least for this year, when it came to having any sort of water for their crops.
So, that being said, when I was talking to that meteorologist, he mentioned that if we in order for the reservoirs to, to really build back up, it would require a massive hurricane that dropped like 50 inches of rain and it would just be a, a really major devastating weather event like that.
It just takes a lot of work from local communities here from the local water supply corporations, to really invest in alternative water supplies like groundwater instead of the surface water from the river.
BRODIE: I want to ask you about that, because you'd mentioned the idea of diversifying the water supply. Are there other sources that are available to these communities?
GARCIA: Yes, certainly. So, there are a few water supply corporations that have already invested in wells that are grading water from the ground and using desalination to treat the water and you know, and have that as the supply for that community. So, they're still at a situation where most of the water they do receive and they do treat comes from the surface water from the river, but they're hoping to change that.
