There’s something missing in the resaca behind the Walmart store on Ruben Torres Sr. Boulevard and that is lots of water.
Usually filled with water on a typical day, this was not the case on Thursday where a group of ducks huddled together in the little water that remained in the resaca.
Although Brownsville Public Utilities Board said they had received a couple of inquires about the low water levels, a spokesman for BPUB said the resaca in question is managed by Cameron County Drainage District No. 1.
“I think they had some kind of repairs they were making…we are providing water for them but they are the ones who actually manage the resaca,” said Ryan Greenfeld, spokesman for BPUB.
The floodgates leading to the resaca behind the Walmart and the Brownsville Event Center are operated by Cameron County Drainage District No. 1, and an employee there said the district was having trouble with the gate that is monitoring the water and that the district was in the process of getting it fixed.
The resaca runs along Morrison Road and leads to other resacas around town.
What happened to water levels in the resaca was the question many were posting on social media. “Won’t it stink and where’s all the fish, snakes and alligator?” asked Gilbert Figueroa-Delgado on The Brownsville Herald’s Facebook page.
A sign near the resaca reads “Beware alligators. Do not feed.”
Erica Stacey Garcia commented, “I drove by and wondered the same thing. This resaca was full not too long ago and it just rained like crazy.”
“They need to get this fixed. They had the same problem last year. The smell with dead fish is horrible,” wrote Lucrecia Alanis-Cruz.
Meanwhile, Elisa Cisneros says she often fishes at the resaca behind the Brownsville Event Center and that the water has been low during her prior fishing excursions. They often catch catfish, she said, as she was fishing at the resaca Thursday afternoon.
“Sometimes they open it (the floodgates) and it will just go down…I came today and the water was real low but I don’t know why they opened it,” she said. “I really don’t know why they let the water go that low but I know they do that sometimes.”
The Brownsville Herald reached out to the Cameron County District Drainage No. 1 twice for additional information, but had not received a response from district officials as of press time.
