A bill that will be filed on Friday will require the agency that oversees the Rio Grande to listen to stakeholders in Texas and the Rio Grande Valley before finalizing the next water sharing agreements with Mexico.

Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz is filing the legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, Oct. 11.

“When I was listening to my farmers and ranchers, they felt frustrated that they did not have enough input on the minute and how it would ultimately affect them,” De La Cruz said. “This really concerned me because the agriculture industry in this area is vital.”

The “minute” is an agreement on how to share water with Mexico as part of the 1944 treaty overseen by the International Boundary and Water Commission.

The treaty requires Mexico to release 1.75 million acre feet of water to the U.S. over a five-year cycle. 

The proposed legislation will require the IBWC to have five public forums — three of them in the Valley — with stakeholders.

Agriculture producers and industry groups say they support the bill.

“The Rio Grande runs shorter on water each year,” Dante L. Galeazzi with the Texas International Produce Association said. “We're the ones that are most impacted as agriculture. We have over half a million irrigated acres… we just want to make sure we have a visual form and a record of the concerns that we continue to share, of the ideas that we have, and we want to make sure there's a feedback process."

The IBWC has been working on the minute agreement with Mexico since last year, but it still hasn't been finalized.

The bill will require the IBWC to take public comments into consideration.

Stakeholders in those meetings would include farmers, city governments and irrigation districts.

“If the Rio Grande Valley does not get water than we cannot recruit companies to come and employ people in this area,” De La Cruz said. “Our farmers and ranchers will also lose businesses and close down, and our realtors and builders, they won't get building permits if there's not enough water."

De La Cruz says she's working to get a co-sponsor bill started in the Senate.

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