{"id":889,"date":"2013-03-22T19:39:29","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T19:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=889"},"modified":"2013-03-23T03:46:37","modified_gmt":"2013-03-23T03:46:37","slug":"in-the-valley-not-just-farmers-but-cities-may-run-out-of-water-by-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=889","title":{"rendered":"In the Valley, Not Just Farmers, but Cities, May Run Out of Water by Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Robert Burns<\/p>\n

In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, water shortages are shaping up as a crisis not just for farmers but also for entire cities this year, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert.<\/p>\n

In 2009, the area experienced the worst drought in decades, as did much of the state, but this year is shaping up to be much worse for area residents, said Dr. Guy Fipps, AgriLife Extension irrigation engineer College Station.<\/p>\n

\"Grain<\/a>

Grain sorghum under irrigation in the Valley. Most all crops in the Lower Rio Grande Valley are dependent upon irrigation water, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service experts. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo by Rod Santa Ana)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIn 2009, there was a drought, but there was plenty of water in the reservoir systems, so there was irrigation water,\u201d he said. \u201cThis year, there is almost no water in the reservoir systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lower Rio Grande Valley, commonly referred to as just \u201cThe Valley,\u201d encompasses the southernmost tip of South Texas. More than 1 million people live in The Valley, according to AgriLife Extension sources. There are row crops commonly grown, such as cotton, sugarcane, grain sorghum and corn, as well as large acreages of commercial vegetable crops such as onions, spinach, potatoes, and many others, as well as citrus.<\/p>\n

All crops and municipal areas are highly dependent upon water from the Rio Grande, Fipps said. There are a few wells, but they tend to be very salty.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the irrigation districts have informed the farmers that they will have one or two irrigation this year,\u201d he said. \u201cThree of the districts have informed their municipal water contracts that they will likely be out of water by April or May and will not be able to supply municipal water. This is quite serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are also international political issues involved, as by treaty Mexico and the U.S. share the water of the Rio Grande.
\n\u201cThe U.S. side is putting pressure on Mexico to get them to release some of the water they owe the U.S. so it can be used to maintain municipal water supplies this year,\u201d Fipps said. \u201cSo it should be very interesting to see how this unfolds in the next two or three months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fipps\u2019 work in the area has concentrated in recent years to modernize canals to conserve water, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cConveyance efficiencies vary from as much as 90 percent in one of the smaller irrigation districts, to as low as 60 percent in many of the larger ones,\u201d he said. \u201cThat means you have anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of the water lost before it reaches the fields.\u201d
\nMore information on the current Texas drought and wildfire alerts can be found on the AgriLife Extension Agricultural Drought Task Force website at http:\/\/agrilife.tamu.edu\/drought\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Robert Burns In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, water shortages are shaping up as a crisis not just for farmers but also for entire cities this year, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert. In 2009, the area experienced the worst drought in decades, as did much of the state, but this year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=889"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":910,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions\/910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}