After an agreement was reached between U.S. and Mexican authorities requiring Mexico to deliver water to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to accept an offer of San Juan River water from Mexico. He also raised concerns about Mexico not complying with a treaty.
“Water is essential for Texans along the Rio Grande Valley to grow crops and support local communities and businesses,” Abbott said. “Mexico’s blatant abuse and disregard of water obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty must not be allowed to continue.”
He also said that “Mexico’s offer of 120,000 acre-feet from the San Juan River is a mere drop in the bucket relative to the 1.75 million acre-feet Mexico is required to deliver to Texas” through a five-year cycle required in the treaty. “Because our farmers and cities can wait no longer, Texas accepts the offer, pending TCEQ’s ultimate approval of the operational procedures,” Abbott said.
Abbott instructed TCEQ to accept the water after the International Boundary and Water Commission announced U.S. and Mexican authorities signed an agreement on Nov. 7 to ensure Mexico made regular water deliveries to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
The agreement was signed two days after President-elect Donald Trump was elected and after Congress passed a bill to withhold federal aid to Mexico unless Texas received water it was owed through the 1944 treaty.
Abbott also argues that Mexico sending the water isn’t in accordance with the treaty because it stipulates that the U.S. and Mexico must share water resources from six named tributaries, including the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers. The San Juan River isn’t one of them.
“While the International Boundary and Water Commission apparently takes the position that water from the San Juan River may be credited against Mexico’s five-year Treaty commitments,” Abbott said, “Texas stands firm in its position – consistent with the text of the Treaty – that those commitments may be satisfied only with water from the six named tributaries.”
“Mexico’s deficit under the 1944 Water Treaty has never been greater. Barring action by Mexico, in October 2025, Texans will be facing a projected deficit of 1.3-million acre-feet of water,” Abbott added.
The agreement was reached eight months after Texas sugar growers in the Rio Grande Valley said they had no choice but to shut down the last remaining sugar operation in Texas because the federal government hadn’t held Mexico accountable for breaking the treaty, The Center Square reported.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers for years called on the Biden administration, and previous administrations, to force Mexico’s hands, the industry argues, to no avail.
The Rio Grande Valley is among the most fertile agricultural regions in the state and country. In order to grow a wide range of crops, farmers rely on water from the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers.
To manage water usage and conservation efforts, Mexico and the U.S. entered into a 1944 Treaty of Utilization of Waters. Over the past 25 years, the State Department hasn’t prioritized American agricultural producers in South Texas, the sugar growers, the agricultural industry and Republican and Democratic lawmakers argue, which led to water shortages in the valley.
The treaty stipulates that Mexico must deliver water to the lower Rio Grande Valley in five-year cycles at a minimum annual average of 350,000 acre-feet of water “except in the event of extraordinary drought or serious accident to its water infrastructure.”
During the current cycle, which began Oct. 25, 2020, Mexico delivered 425,405 acre-feet of water. Its obligation under the treaty is to deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water by Oct. 24, 2025, “absent extraordinary drought or a serious infrastructure accident,” The Center Square reported.
In June, the combined U.S. water storage held in the Lake Amistad and Falcon Dam international reservoirs was at 18.76%, the lowest volume on record, according to IBWC data.
To address the issue, the U.S. House in June passed an appropriations bill that stipulated that the U.S. withhold foreign aid to Mexico until it released the required amount of water. Mexico receives hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assistance.
The request was made by Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, among others, to include the funding stipulation in the fiscal 2025 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill. De La Cruz also introduced separate bills to address the issue and has called for federal financial assistance for south Texas agricultural producers who suffered losses from Mexico’s failure to deliver water.
