LA FERIA — Local and county officials broke ground Thursday on a project to counter a hundred years of heavy flooding in the Tio Cano Lake area in western Cameron County.
The $1.7 million project was initiated through the new Cameron County Drainage District No. 6 and will widen drainage channels and add three new pumps to pull floodwaters out of the area and route them toward the Arroyo Colorado.
“Don’t ask me why they call them 500-year storms, but this part of the county had literally three 500-year storms year after year,” said County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. “And we were getting upset, why do they all them 500-year storms when we’re going to have them every year?”
“You don’t realize how big Cameron County is until you start getting on the back roads in the rural areas,” he added. “We have a huge, huge area. But there are certain problem areas that have been literally ignored, not paid attention to, and certainly not addressed. Tio Cano being probably one of, if not the worst, drainage and flood-prone areas in our county.”
The new pumps, which will be purchased this week, will be augmented with a generator to ensure that loss of power won’t affect operation of the new pumping station in case electricity goes out.
Funding for the project, $1.4 million, comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
The remaining monies were provided by residents who voted last year to create Cameron County Drainage District No. 6. The first county drainage district was formed in 1912.
County Commissioner Gus Ruiz, who represents Precinct 4 which covers the Tio Cano area, said his research showed that people living here in the early 1900s would put their kids in boats and cross the lake to get them to school.
“In November 2021 by an overwhelming vote the people in this area voted yes to create the drainage district,” Ruiz said. “As a result, with the fruits of their labor, they were able to pass their tax rate and some of their bond proceeds to do some projects.”
“Folks, I can tell you, with the combination of those proceeds, the maintenance that’s going to be done in the area, with the particular projects that are going to be done, this the reason why we are here. I can tell you that drainage and infrastructure in this area is going to be accelerated and improved in a timely manner.”
One of the difficulties in dealing with flooding in the Tio Cano area is that it is protected as wetlands by the federal government, complicating efforts to dredge and alter water flows.
“We’re fighting nature and we’re fighting the fact that it’s a preserved area, a preserved wetland, so we can’t do much dredging,” said Josh Ruiz, vice president of drainage district No 6.
Gilbert Galvan, secretary of the drainage district No. 6 board, said the three new pumps will augment two existing pumps installed about eight or 10 years ago.
“What we’re doing is adding three additional pumps to be able to move more volume quicker and probably pump water south and also north,” Galvan said. “The idea is to get rid of the water. There’s no magic to improving what we have, right? The terrain is what it is.”
Laura Haley is president of drainage district No. 6, and she said Thursday was a “landmark” day for residents here.
“Remember, the Tio Cano folks have repeatedly and emphatically told county officials how much they need help here, and in response, DD6 was created,” she said. “This is our first capital improvement project to reach this point.”
Haley said the drainage improvements will enhance property values and help prevent residents from being stranded by floodwaters like they have been in recent years.
“I live right by the floodway so I live this, too. I live the flood, too, and when they close our gates to allow Hidalgo County’s water to pass down the floodway, they close the gate by my house first and they open it last,” she said. “So we sit in floodwaters for two-and-a-half, three weeks.
“We’ve all gotten E. coli and stomach illnesses because of it. It’s killed crops and animals all around us … “ she added. “It’s devastating what it’s done here. But this is such a momentous time to see this moving forward and helping folks. It’s government at its best.”
