By Ryan Poppe, Texas Public Radio News
AUSTIN – A Texas lawmaker is demanding that Mexico pay back the millions of dollars owned to the state in water.
Democrat Rep Eddie Lucio III of Harlingen says the Mexican Government has violated a treaty with the United States over the delivery of water from the Rio Grande River. He says his bill effects more than just those farming and living along the Texas-Mexico border.
EDDIE LUCIO III: “Our economies are intermindedly linked. What happens in the Rio Grande Valley with the citrus industries can affect small business in West Texas or East Texas or vice versa.”
According to the 70-year old treaty, the Mexican government is to release 1.75 million acre feet of water to United States every five years, of which they have failed to deliver.
LUCIO: “Essentially if they would just allow the water to be delivered and not damn the river or not divert water from the river we wouldn’t have this issue. But you know regulations and planning on the Mexico side is very different than the Texas and United States, but how they’re diverting water and damning water affects the United States side”
Lucio’s bill makes a plea to the US Secretary of State to act on Texas behalf and demand that Mexico release the amount of water that is owned. The bill was left pending with those sitting on the House Committee on Natural Resources favoring the legislation.
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