U.S. Water News Online
AUSTIN -- Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs returned from a trip to Washington where she again pressed for making Mexico repay the water it owes the United States.
Combs met with State Department and other federal government officials earlier to offer data and suggestions for collecting the water, she said.
To help make her case, she presented a report prepared by the University of Texas Center for Space Research showing satellite photographs of water reservoirs and irrigated crop land in northern Mexico. As of Sept. 24, Mexico had more than 3 million acre feet of water in storage, according to Mexico's own figures, the report states.
In her meetings in Washington, Combs said she pointed out there are unprecedented amounts of water stored in Mexico. ``It's unbelievable that we can't push them on this.''
A 1944 treaty stipulates that the United States and Mexico share water from the Rio Grande and Colorado River. Texas farmers have criticized Mexico for not meeting its commitment in recent years to send the United States an average of 350,000 acre feet annually over a five-year cycle.
In August, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the United States should consider stopping the flow of water to Mexico from the Colorado River if it continues to lag behind in its water-sharing obligations under the treaty.
But a spokesman for the Mexican embassy in Washington said his country has met its obligations under the treaty during Mexican President Vicente Fox's administration by delivering the minimum annual average required under the treaty.
One of Combs' suggestions to get movement under way on the water issue is to consider establishing a model agriculture labor program that would allow certain Mexican workers to hold jobs temporarily in the United States. It would be similar to the agriculture labor program between Mexico and Canada.
Mexican ownership of water in international reservoirs along the Texas-Mexico border will rise beyond 700,000 acre feet this year, Combs said.
She's proposing that Mexico transfer 500,000 acre feet of water from the Falcon Reservoir to be used by U.S. farmers in the immediate future. That amount would go toward its debt of 1.47 million acre feet to the United States.
Such a move would not jeopardize Mexico's agricultural interests or endanger the water supply to Mexican cities along the Rio Grande, Combs said.
``It's right there in Falcon,'' she said. ``We can release it to our guys.''
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