Aug. 29, 2005

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HARLINGEN – Wayne Halbert knows it's a matter of when, not if, the Lower Rio Grande Valley suffers another drought.

Floods and droughts are the nature and history of the Rio Grande, Halbert said. And when the next drought comes, he wants South Texas to be ready for it.

Halbert is the manager of the Harlingen Irrigation District, one of 25 districts in the Valley. As manager, he's responsible for drawing water from the river and moving it to users, including the city of Harlingen, farmers and other entities.

Some will argue the 10-year drought is not yet over, but during its darkest days, Halbert applied for funds to improve the efficiency of his water district. His plan was three-fold: to improve the infrastructure of the district's canal system, to meter the water flowing through the district, and to meter and help improve on-farm water use.

He obtained matching dollar grants from various state and federal sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Reclamations, the North American Development Bank and the Texas Legislature.

The Harlingen Irrigation District has spent about $4 million of that money re-lining cement canals, converting others to underground pipelines and replacing old pipes with newer pipes.

"We also installed metering devices throughout the district so that we know how water flows, where it's going and how much water we are able to deliver to various locations," Halbert said. "It also helps us automate our system a little so that we're better able to provide enough water to farmers to allow them to be more efficient."

But with water now more plentiful and much cheaper than it was just a few years ago, Halbert admits interest has waned for the third phase of his water-saving plan: on-farm conservation.

"We don't have quite as much interest in the project as when the drought and the cost of water were cutting deep into the pockets of our farmers, but the project is just as viable now as it was then," he said.

Halbert is convinced that in addition to the cyclical inevitability of another drought, international politics and urbanization will also squeeze future water supplies.

"The political changes that have occurred in Mexico absolutely mean that we will not get the water from Mexico that we have enjoyed in the past," he said. "It just will not happen, regardless of any water-sharing treaties. And development is changing the water game from agricultural use to a much higher urban use. So we're just going to have to learn to live with less water."

Part of that education will be paid for with a $3.7 million grant from the Texas Water Development Board to the Harlingen and Delta Lake Irrigation Districts, north of Weslaco.

Funds will be used to collect data from previously installed meters at strategic locations throughout the districts to measure on-farm irrigations.

An agricultural demonstration initiative will also be implemented. Several institutions are included in this effort, including Texas Cooperative Extension and Texas A&M-Kingsville.

"Our role is to provide technical assistance and guidance in several demonstration projects, including the comparison of flood irrigation to drip, surge, center pivot and other irrigation management strategies to conserve water," said Dr. Juan Enciso, irrigation engineer at the Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco.

The project also includes the construction of a meter calibration facility, one of few in the U.S., near the Harlingen Irrigation District's pumping facilities on the river.

"This facility will do two things," Halbert said. "It will be an educational tool for other irrigation districts and farmers alike, to see how they can measure their water using different methods, and it will serve as a facility to calibrate and repair meters."

Halbert hopes construction of the half-million dollar facility will begin this fall.

Tom McLemore, manager of the agricultural demonstration initiative at the Harlingen Irrigation District, said, "Water is a crop input that at this point is relatively inexpensive. But when it becomes expensive and scarce, we need to be prepared with the tools and solutions to properly manage that input."

For more information, visit the Harlingen Irrigation District Web site at http://www.hidcc1.org .