For years — decades, even — we have called, with increasing urgency, for U.S. and Mexican officials to revisit the water-sharing treaty that governs each country’s inflows and outflows to the Rio Grande.
That urgency could be waning, however — not because conditions have improved, but exactly the opposite: It might be too late.
The river is the lifeblood of the Rio GrandeValley. While much attention is given to its role as an international boundary — and aiding nativists’ efforts to keep Mexicans out by killing many who try to ford its waters — local residents know how much we depend on its waters to provide our drinking water and irrigate our crops.
Climatologists and river experts already report that the 1,900-mile river, the fifth-longest in North America, is at risk of running completely dry.
This makes mitigation efforts, such as the Southwest Regional Water Authority desalination plant, all the more important. The plant, which began operating in 2004 and has been expanded twice, currently produces about 31% of the 20.4 million gallons of water its southern CameronCounty service area uses every day. It’s the largest of seven desalination plants already operating in the Valley, and has a capacity of 10 million gallons a day, about a third more than its current output.
This eases the strain on the Rio Grande, which analysts say already is losing more water than it takes in every year. Agriculture still dominates, taking about 75% of the river’s water, but the border’s rapid population and industrial growth, from the river’s source in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado all the way to Boca Chica, is a major concern; municipal use is higher per capita than agriculture.
That drain has an even greater effect as the border’s dry conditions continue. According to a report published this month in The Houston Chronicle, the first two decades of this century have been drier than any time in the past 1,200 years — and that followed the devastating drought of the 1990s.
Over the past century, the average temperature in some parts of the Southwest have risen more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit. That has led to less snowfall in the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which feed the Rio Grande during the spring thaws.
Already, crops are failing for lack of water. Already city and county officials here and elsewhere are reviewing water use ordinances in case rationing becomes necessary.
Desalination isn’t a perfect answer; for every gallon of clean water produced, the process creates 1.5 gallons of brine. Salt is so plentiful that it isn’t cost-effective to extract and sell it, so it’s simply dumped into the. It’s about 40% saltier than seawater, enough to affect fish, plants and wildlife.
It will take time to address such issues adequately. We can’t just sit and pray for rain; we have to start planning for the possibility that we will have to reduce our reliance on the Rio Grande, from establishing alternative water sources to considering crops that need less irrigation.
The time to fight for our rightful share of water from Mexico might be past; we have to find ways to deal with the water we have.
