Texas 2013 - 83rd Regular

Texas House Bill HCR55 Compare Versions

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1	1	By: Lucio III (Senate Sponsor - Hinojosa) H.C.R. No. 55
2	2	(In the Senate - Received from the House April 11, 2013;
3	3	April 18, 2013, read first time and referred to Committee on
4	4	Natural Resources; May 8, 2013, reported favorably by the
5	5	following vote: Yeas 10, Nays 0; May 8, 2013, sent to printer.)
6	6
7	7
8	8	HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
9	9	WHEREAS, Mexico's failure to fulfill its water deliveries to
10	10	the United States according to the stipulations of a 1944 treaty
11	11	between the two countries significantly harms the interests of
12	12	Texas; and
13	13	WHEREAS, The Rio Grande is both an interstate and
14	14	international river arising in the mountains of Colorado and
15	15	flowing in a southerly direction through New Mexico, where it forms
16	16	the border between the United States and Mexico beginning near El
17	17	Paso; the river is a shared and vital resource providing municipal
18	18	water for millions of Texans and irrigation water for hundreds of
19	19	thousands of acres in Texas; and
20	20	WHEREAS, Below Fort Quitman, the waters of the Rio Grande are
21	21	apportioned to the United States and to Mexico per the terms of the
22	22	1944 Treaty, "Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana
23	23	Rivers and of the Rio Grande"; Article IV of the treaty requires
24	24	that inflows from certain named tributaries of the Rio Grande be
25	25	apportioned one-third to the United States and two-thirds to
26	26	Mexico; and
27	27	WHEREAS, The 1944 Treaty specifically requires that "this
28	28	third shall not be less, as an average amount in cycles of five
29	29	consecutive years, than 350,000 acre-feet (431,721,000 cubic
30	30	meters) annually"; Mexico is allowed to deliver less than this
31	31	annual average amount of water during a five-year cycle only in the
32	32	event of an extraordinary drought, and not all years in a delivery
33	33	cycle reflect extraordinary drought conditions; and
34	34	WHEREAS, Many municipal, industrial, and agricultural water
35	35	users in Texas rely almost exclusively on these waters from the Rio
36	36	Grande for their water supplies; it is thus critical to the state's
37	37	interests that, during years in which extraordinary drought is not
38	38	present, Mexico take all necessary measures to address accumulated
39	39	water delivery deficits; and
40	40	WHEREAS, During the current five-year delivery cycle, which
41	41	began on October 25, 2010, Mexico has failed to deliver an amount of
42	42	water equal to the annual average required by the 1944 Treaty, and
43	43	the deficit amount so far exceeds 390,000 acre-feet; and
44	44	WHEREAS, Several irrigation districts in the Lower Rio Grande
45	45	Valley of Texas are now projecting they will exhaust their
46	46	irrigation water reserves by mid-year 2013 as a result; these same
47	47	irrigation districts deliver municipal water to almost all of the
48	48	cities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas; and
49	49	WHEREAS, The 1944 Treaty requires that the United States
50	50	Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, which
51	51	is a subdivision of the United States Department of State, ensure
52	52	compliance with the terms of the 1944 Treaty; and
53	53	WHEREAS, The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has
54	54	conveyed and communicated these issues and concerns to the
55	55	International Boundary and Water Commission, and it is vital that
56	56	the IBWC and the state department recognize the critical
57	57	socioeconomic importance of this issue; now, therefore, be it
58	58	RESOLVED, That the 83rd Legislature of the State of Texas
59	59	hereby respectfully urge the U.S. Department of State and the
60	60	United States Section of the International Boundary and Water
61	61	Commission to take appropriate action to ensure that Mexico
62	62	complies with the 1944 Treaty and that it takes all necessary steps
63	63	to make deliveries to the United States a priority during its annual
64	64	water allocation deliberations; and, be it further
65	65	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
66	66	copies of this resolution to the secretary of state of the United
67	67	States and to the commissioner of the International Boundary and
68	68	Water Commission, United States and Mexico.
69	69	* * * * *