Reactions to Texas accepting new water deal from Mexico
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Texas is authorizing South Texas farmers to draw water that Mexico is offering from summer floods around Monterrey.
Farmers need more water, but they said they're concerned this supply will be too little too late.
As the owner of Donna’s Corn Maze, John Billman said his crop won’t be harvested at the end of the season,
Producers like Billman will each get a fraction of a new source of water Mexico is offering the U.S. after four years of being behind on meeting its treaty obligations for water deliveries.
Mexico offered the U.S. 120,000 acre-feet from Mexico's San Juan River due to an overflow from summer flooding in the area, and Texas figured out how to legally accept the offer.
“They issued temporary permits to all the water rights holders from the confluence of the Rio San Juan to the Rio Grande, downstream,” Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 General Manager Sonny Hinojosa said.
The state granted no charge pumping to water users who were worried they'd have less control over water that's controlled by Mexico.
READ MORE: Despite back-to-back deals on water from Mexico, relief for South Texas farmers is far from certain
Mexico is behind its water deliveries to the U.S. by nearly a million acre feet of water.
“120 thousand acre feet is too little too late,” Hinojosa said. “We use 1.2 million acre feet a year when we have the water available, so this is just one tenth of the volume of water that we need.”
The Mexican floodwaters are set to be delivered, but each farmer stands to get a fraction.
"That’s not enough to survive,” Billman said.
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