I represent one of 26 irrigation districts totaling over 1.5 million acre feet of water rights in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Both our cities and farmers are dependent on water from the Rio Grande and the compliance of the 1944 Treaty between the United States and Mexico that governs the division of water between the two countries.

Recently, an article was printed regarding Mexico paying their water debt in full. I want to comment on this article and bring to light the other side of the story … the side that was not told.

Under the 1944 Treaty between the United States and Mexico, the U.S. is entitled to 1/3 of the water flows from six named tributaries reaching the Rio Grande. This amount shall not be less than, as an average in five consecutive year cycles, 350,000 acre feet annually.

At the end of the previous 5-year cycle which ended Oct. 24, 2015, Mexico accumulated a water debt to the United States of 263,250 acre feet of which most was paid through transfers of ownership of existing water in the River and stored water at Amistad Reservoir.

What was not mentioned is that prior to the transfers, 184,340 acre feet was credited to Mexico from a tributary that is not one of the six named tributaries, which is inconsistent with the terms of 1944 Treaty.

The Treaty was specific in naming six tributaries and does not speak to allowing credit from any other tributary, yet the credit was given to Mexico.

In addition to wrongfully issuing Mexico a credit towards their debt, IBWC’s action deprived the River from Presidio, Texas, downstream and the Falcon/Amistad Reservoir system, of 553,000 acre feet of water (184,340 acre feet x3) which not only hurts the health of the River but also the eco-tourism in the cities that depend on reservoir and River levels, such as Zapata, Del Rio, surrounding communities, and the Big Bend area of Texas.

So this is how Mexico was able to “pay” their debt. It is difficult to understand IBWC’s statement which states that this “success exemplifies the cooperation that now exists between the United States and Mexico to address the water needs of both countries.”

Seems like the cooperation is a one-sided one at the expense of the Texas farmers and cites that depend on IBWC’s responsibility to ensure treaty compliance and allow an equal opportunity for economic growth.

Sonia Lambert

General Manager of Cameron County Irrigation District #2 San Benito

McALLEN — More than 1,500 participants kicked off the South Texas All Hazards Hurricane Conference on Wednesday to prepare for all sorts of potential emergencies in the Rio Grande Valley.

Now in its fourth year, the conference draws in experts from all fields, including public safety, fire, police, EMS and many others, said Eddie Olivarez, Hidalgo County chief administrative officer for Health and Human Services.

“Interoperability is the core of all emergency operations,” Olivarez said. “And I’m proud to say that the Rio Grande Valley has proven time and time again that during hurricanes, during fires, during public health incidences, we are ready to respond and work in that interoperative component — not only at the state level, but at the federal level as well.”

The two-day conference featured breakout sessions that involved everything from learning how to keep calm during stressful situations to horseback rescues. Helicopters and K-9 units were on hand practicing drills that ranged from rescue operations to neutralizing threats.

The objective is to keep everyone up to date on the latest developments involving emergencies, Olivarez said. There are guidelines set by the state of Texas and the federal government that outline various protocols. These guidelines are updated every five years and the region is working on updating them again this year.

The event is also important to build trust and communication between various agencies, including U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which have “stepped up to the plate” in times of need to offer a helping hand, Olivarez said.

Many residents in South Texas fear an emergency evacuation, as many of them are undocumented. U.S. Border Patrol RGV Sector Chief Padilla, however, said that should not be a concern for the public.

“Whenever you have an actual disaster like that, the safety of the community is first and foremost,” Padilla said. “When it comes to preparing and responding to a hurricane, for example, as part of a community effort, the last thing that we have on the books is checking immigration documents.”

The Texas State Technical College culinary arts department is holding its annual event today.

Tables filled with delicious foods are available in the TSTC Cultural Arts Center located at Loop 499 and Raintree Street.

Culinary students prepared the dishes from countries across the globe.

At the end of the festival one team will be given presented with the One People’s Choice Award.

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The festival takes place from 11 am to 1 pm.

RAYMONDVILLE — City officials have agreed to give an incoming business a tax break.

Tuesday night, city commissioners gave Tractor Supply Co. a $33,852 property tax abatement.

As part of an agreement, the city will reduce the business’ property taxes over a five-year period, City Manager Eleazar Garcia said yesterday.

“It’s to get more people working,” Mayor Gilbert Gonzales said. “We need more businesses to open here and we keep working at it — plugging at it.”

The national retailer will hire seven full-time employees and seven part-time employees, said Catalina Ozuna, executive director of the Raymondville Economic Development Corporation.

Ozuna said the company wants to enter its Raymondville Plaza suite next month to launch a remodeling project at the storefront that was home to the city’s first Walmart store years ago.

Tractor Supply is expected to open by the end of the year, Gonzales said.

Tractor Supply becomes the latest business to breathe new life into the shopping center.

Ozuna said the shopping center’s new owner is bringing new development there.

In June, Wing Champs opened in the shopping center, creating 25 jobs.

Gonzales said the sports-themed restaurant is helping to drive customers to the area.

Next month, Holiday Inn Express is expected to open next to the shopping center.

The 75-room hotel, which has been under construction since January 2014, is expected to create about 10 jobs.

Toward the start of construction, hotel owner V.J. Jhaveri, who owns a Super 8 motel in Harlingen, planned to complete construction on the hotel in about 10 months.

At that time, Jhaveri said he planned to offer more “upscale” lodging for corporate clients, business travelers and vacationers.

The hotel will be the first to open here since 2008, when La Quinta Inns & Suites opened across Interstate 69.

HARLINGEN – New three-dimensional mammography technology which is now available in the Valley can provide clearer images for women with “dense” breast tissue. Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen is the only hospital in the Rio Grande Valley to offer this new technology.

The first 3-D “digital tomosynthesis” or “TOMO” mammography unit is now available at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. The new machine provides more information for certain women who need a screening mammogram, said Rebecca Hernandez, RT(R)(M)(BS), Breast Center Supervisor at Valley Baptist-Harlingen.

“In some cases, this new mammography technique provides advantages, especially for women with dense breasts,” Ms. Hernandez added.

Joey Govea, Director of Radiology at Valley Baptist, said in some cases the new technology may allow radiologists at Valley Baptist to “see” breast cancers easier, especially in women with dense tissue. The clearer, more accurate pictures are produced because the image is 3-dimensional — like a box which can be seen from all sides — instead of 2-dimensional, like a rectangle on a flat piece of paper.

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“The machine moves through a 30-degree sweep on its own, to create depth of field,” Mr. Govea said.

“It produces an image in which a suspicious finding is in focus, while the background is blurry, so the radiologist can ’zero in’ on the potential problem.”

With more information obtained from the first scan, physicians hope to eliminate many “false positive” results.

With non-tomographic mammography technique, if something was not clear in the picture, the woman may be called back for a second mammogram. This is especially true for women with dense breasts.

For many patients, going back for a second mammogram caused undue anxiety, with the patient worrying that she may have breast cancer — when in fact the first image just wasn’t clear enough for the physicians to make a definite determination.

“With the 3-D TOMO technology, we hope to eliminate many of these unneeded callbacks and biopsies, which can be very traumatic to women,” Ms. Hernandez said.

The 3-D mammography technique was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The new technique is an advance from digital mammography systems, which Valley Baptist introduced in Harlingen in 2005.

“Valley Baptist has been a pioneer in providing life-saving mammography services for the women of the Valley,” Mr. Govea added. “We purchased this new imaging technology to provide an ever higher level of service to our community.”

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in American women. One in eight women will develop the disease at some point in her life. However, when breast cancer is detected early — often through the help of screening mammograms — it’s one of the most treatable forms of cancer.

The Breast Center at Valley Baptist is located on the first floor of the Valley Baptist Professional Building, 2101 Pease Street in Harlingen (Professional Building Entrance B).

A physician referral for a screening mammogram is not needed for women over age 40, but an appointment is required.

To schedule a mammogram, please call (956) 389-1852.

For more information on breast cancer and mammography, consult your physician and visit www.ValleyBaptist.net.

HARLINGEN – Are you looking for an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others? To help others? To utilize your skillset and talents? Then, you should contact the Volunteer Services Department at Harlingen Medical Center. The award-winning and nationally recognized hospital has opportunities for adult volunteers to come in and support the hospital staff in various departments as a Volunteer!

Harlingen Medical Center is currently recruiting volunteer members 14 years of age and older for its Junior Volunteer Summer program and adults 21-years of age and older to join its year round Adult Volunteer Services program.

“Volunteers are extraordinary people who want to contribute to the greater good of things,” said Maggie Ramos, who manages the Volunteer Services program at Harlingen Medical Center. “We have several opportunities where we can utilize individual’s talents and skills to support the overall operation of the hospital, while assisting our staff in creating wonderful experiences for our patients.”

Volunteers are currently being sought to fill positions in departments and areas that include the hospital hospitality program, Emergency, Finance, Human Resources and Marketing. Duties will vary depending on the assigned department/area, but most will include assisting guests, performing clerical duties, and assisting staff as needed. Some volunteer positions will involve working with patients’ families, while others will involve contact with patients. Volunteers are assigned to a department/area according to their interests and needs of the hospital.

“During their service at Harlingen Medical Center, we want to ensure that all of our volunteers are doing something that they enjoy,” said Ramos. “And, at the same time we want to ensure that they are contributing to the overall wellness of our patients, since they are our number one priority.”

The Volunteer Services program is open to anyone who is interested in giving back to their community.

All potential volunteers must meet certain criteria, which includes submitting a volunteer application, submitting to and passing a background check, clearing all vaccination requirements, and meet a weekly commitment, among others requirements. A dress code must be adhered to while on duty, which includes khaki pants, a burgundy hospital issued Polo, and comfortable, light colored walking shoes.

“The Harlingen Medical Center Volunteer Services program is a great opportunity for those who are at the university level and wish to have an insight into healthcare,” said Ramos. “Our volunteers will receive hands-on healthcare experience, receive credit for school (if they require it), grow personally through service to others, and have access to all of the health and wellness programs offered to volunteers, at HMC, for free.”

To learn more about the Harlingen Medical Center Volunteer Services program, please contact Maggie Ramos at (956) 365-1888 or at [email protected].

MERCEDES — After publishing his first book, “The Greatest Machine,” Coach Jacob Howell is following up with his second on how to help people build an elite body.

“It’s an elite exercise program for a million dollar athlete,” Howell said. “And it’s for anyone who wants to be elite fit.”

The book is packed with a six-week exercise program and 30-day meal plan on how to get lean and lose fat.

“I know everything about being fit and elite,” Howell said. “I have trained most athletes that have gone to play division one sports from the Valley.”

Howell’s book is titled “Cross Training for Elite Athletes, and a Champion’s Mentality” is scheduled to be published next month and will be available in hard copy and for download on electronic readers.

“This book is to help people become elite physically,” Howell said. “It will do me no good if I was to keep my knowledge all to myself.”

Howell, 38, from Mercedes, is a strength and conditioning coach who has worked on coaching staffs at the professional and college level.

He was intern strength and conditioning coach for Florida State University under Bobby Bowden and the University of Texas with Mac Brown while he was finishing up his certification for strength and conditioning.

Howell later joined the St. Louis Cardinals in Major League Baseball as an assistant, and was the head strength and conditioning coach for 16 sports teams at Concordia University before becoming the strength and conditioning coordinator for the Mercedes ISD athletic sports teams.

Howell said he came back to the Valley to be near his family because life on the road as a sports coach took its toll.

Howell said the book will detail some of his life story and journey in the sports world to motivate his readers and give insight to working out with elite athletes.

“I’m hoping people will get a sense of accomplishment and get self confidence through fitness,” Howell said.

Howell earned his masters degree at UTRGV when it was UTPA in exercise science with emphasis on strength and conditioning and human performance.

He earned his bachelors in kinesiology and health science.

Howell also is a former World Fitness Champion.

“I’m excited about this book,” Howell said. “I’m almost 40 and I try to stay elite in fitness as much as I can while helping people along the way.”

HARLINGEN — Streamlining the Valley’s metro planning organizations into one entity could mean more funding for transportation in the region.

Or it could result in lost dollars in some communities, while others gain.

McAllen Mayor Jim Darling repeated his support for exploring such a consolidation, citing efficiency and the potential for an overall increase in state transportation funding.

Darling, speaking to the McAllen Economic Development Corp. last week, said merging the McAllen, Harlingen-San Benito, Hidalgo County and Brownsville MPOs could lead to increased state funding by dramatically increasing the population a Valley-wide metro planning agency would represent.

“The incentive to merge the MPOs is that we would then reach a population level that would possibly mean we would have a seat at the discretionary fund table,” Darling was quoted as saying by the Rio Grande Guardian.

That discretionary fund table is dominated by the four biggest MPOs in the state — Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin.

Those four organizations are the biggest recipients of Texas Department of Transportation discretionary transportation funding.

The comments by Darling are the latest development as officials weigh consolidation of the region’s MPOs.

In 2015, the Rio Grande Valley MPO Merger Committee was formed to explore the potential benefits of creating a single planning entity.

“It is possible that more discretionary funding would be available to a regional MPO, but how that would be allocated is still an open question,” Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell said this week via email. “The committee is still looking for a suitable governance model for a regional MPO.

“I have always been open to considering the possibility of a merger if we can be assured of (1) increased funding and (2) a governance model which would assure that funding percentages would remain in the territory of the previously constituted MPOs,” Boswell added. “In other words, we don’t want to see Harlingen-San Benito monies shifted to another region within a newly formed regional MPO.”

That merger committee is comprised of four representatives from each of the MPOs in question.

The Harlingen-San Benito MPO committee representatives include Combes Mayor Mark Sanchez, County Commissioner David Garza, Harlingen-San Benito Director Joel Garza and Boswell.

Boswell said there have been three committee meetings to date. He said a 2012 Texas Transportation Institute report on a possible merger found the “creation of a regional MPO results in slightly less total regional funding than remaining three separate entities … Category 2 dollars coming into the region would be approximately $180,000 less than the three MPOs remaining separate.”

“Mayor Darling, in his capacity as president of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council (the COG) has recently convened meetings of the large cities coalition of the COG to have an opportunity for dialogue among the large cities which I welcome,” Boswell continued. “This is one of the topics which came up in those meetings, but as noted, the merger study has been ongoing since last summer.”

SAN BENITO — The Rio Grande Street Bridge is open to the public and ready to be used after some major improvements.

Deemed unsafe by city officials, the bridge on Rio Grande Street was closed in January.

The city closed the bridge to traffic for a two and a half month period due to unsafe conditions of the structure.

With that work now completed, officials have determined more improvements are needed in that area, and will begin upgrading infrastructure and Rio Grande Street from the bridge to McCullough Street.

Public Works Director Adan Gonzalez is asking motorists in that area to drive carefully because crews still will be working to replace water and sewer lines, sidewalks and curbs.

If weather permits, work on this job should take about two weeks.

City leaders made the decision to close the bridge indefinitely as a precautionary measure to prevent possible accidents.

Officials said the instability of the bridge was revealed after a routine inspection found structural concerns.

The bridge is located between Rio Grande Avenue and the corner of 2nd and Fresno streets.

After meeting with commissioners in January, Interim City Manager Art Rodriguez was given permission to proceed with engineers who together came up with a plan of action to repair the bridge.

Rodriguez discovered at that time the erosion issues on the bridge support.

“After an inspection of the bridge, it was decided that it is unsafe at this time and that the Rio Grande Street bridge should be shut down from Fresno Street to Second Street,” he said.

“When I was out there looking at it, I saw two school buses pass by. It is a serious problem and we don’t want any accidents or problems.”

Buses going to the school in that area were rerouted but will now be able to use the newly restructured bridge.

The bridge spans a Cameron County Drainage District ditch that takes water runoff away from the Rio Grande Street area.