MISSION, Texas (Border Report) — The South Texas border town of Mission is known as the “Home of the Grapefruit.”
But the sight of grapefruit, lemon and orange groves could soon be no more as water scarcity is beginning to affect the citrus industry here significantly, and other Rio Grande Valley towns and communities are having to adjust because of Mexico’s inability to pay the United States water it owes.
So far, Mexico has paid barely one year’s worth of water in the current five-year water cycle, which ends in October 2025, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission.
Under a 1944 international treaty, Mexico must deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water by the deadline, an average of about 350,000 acre-feet per year. But as of Saturday, Mexico has only paid 382,538 acre-feet of water, and with just 19 months to go, border lawmakers do not believe Mexico will pay its debt in time.
Last month, Texas’ only sugar mill — and one of only three in the nation — closed down in nearby Santa Rosa because there wasn’t enough water for sugar growers.
Over 500 mill workers lost their jobs. And local leaders fear it’s just the first of many industries to falter as water becomes scarcer.
“We’ve passed two resolutions – one last year, and actually one at the last meeting – urging Mexico to release the water that is owed to us by the treaty. And so obviously, that has affected our water supply negatively,” Mission Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza told Border Report.
Garza spoke on Monday night after the Mission City Council unanimously voted to secure agriculture water rights with a local irrigation district to pump more water from the Rio Grande that they will then convert for municipal use.
But it comes at a cost of $80 per acre-foot and they won’t get all they pay for.
To move the water from the Rio Grande, the city will pay what’s called a “loss” of 15%, meaning for every 100 acre-feet of water they buy; they will get 85 acre-feet, Garza told Border Report.
During Monday’s meeting, Garza asked about the loss and joked: “If we were further away from the water, it would be more.”
The city of Mission is right on the Rio Grande across from Tamaulipas, Mexico.
The acres of citrus groves that spurred over eight decades of the Texas Citrus Fiesta and parades, are now dwindling. Meanwhile, the population of this border town of 90,000 is growing, and so is development.
An irrigation canal delivers water to farmers in Mission, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
The lack of water also has the Mission City Council contemplating halting permits for subdivision developments over 5 acres in size for at least 60 days.
The measure was discussed during a March 18 special meeting.
“The purpose for that was to give staff and the city council, our city manager to develop a mechanism to secure water rights for the future. Presently, the City of Mission does not have that in place. So in order to get that done, and prepare for the future, we need to have these these mechanisms in place,” Garza said.
Garza told Border Report that it could be voted on during the next regular meeting on April 8.
She says they have to do something and conservation and preparation is their best plan since Mexico refuses to pay the water back.
“We’re getting less water. And because of our growth, basically, we’re having to divide it among, you know, more and more residents, more businesses,” she said.
Mission Assistant City Manager David Flores is also the city’s emergency management coordinator. He says the city is looking to revamp its drought contingency plan to conserve as much water as possible.
“The water levels of both Amistad and Falcon reservoirs are very low — historically low. Coupled with that, we have historic growth here in the Rio Grande Valley. So when you add those two together, we are going to be forced to look at our drought contingency plan,” Flores told Border Report.
Amistad Dam is outside Del Rio, while Falcon Dam is upriver about 65 miles from Mission.
As of Tuesday, Amistad Dam was at 21% storage capacity; Falcon Dam, which supplies most of the water to the Rio Grande Valley, was at 6%, according to the IBWC.
According to the city, Mission is currently under Stage 2 water restrictions, which limit homeowners and irrigators to water only on certain days But that is voluntary and there really aren’t consequences, Garza said.
But if the city went to Stage 3, she said agriculture would not have as high priority for water receipts as it currently does.
Tina Martin’s family has been in the citrus industry for decades. They have participated in the fiesta and sent kings and queens to the annual events.
But she told Border Report that her current groves are not getting enough water.
“I’m extremely concerned about water. My groves are having a hard time. We hopefully will not lose our crops,” she said Monday as she prepared to attend the Mission City Council meeting. “I don’t know how we’re going to survive. And there are other people whose husbands are in the row crop industry and they’re having a terrible time. We have to get the water situation solved. Or we got a lot of people going out of business.”
Retiree Maria Esther Peña Salinas also attended the meeting and stayed until the very end.
She says Mission was founded on citrus and needs to prioritize the crops.
“If they start building apartments and houses all over the place they’re going to destroy what Mission was all about. Mission was home to the ruby red grapefruit,” she said.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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