Conference conveys project outcomes
More than 100 project participants met at the Texas A&M Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Weslaco, Texas, for the second annual Rio Grande Basin Initiative Conference.
The three-day conference brought irrigation district managers, commodity group leaders and agency representatives together with researchers and specialists from the Texas A&M University System Agriculture Program and the New Mexico State University College of Agriculture and Home Economics.
B.L. Harris, administrator of the Rio Grande Basin Initiative and associate director of the Texas Water Resources Institute, said the conference succeeded in strengthening collaboration and providing opportunities for linkage across units and with other agencies.
“The communication process that takes place at the annual conference is critical,” he said.
Outcomes and accountability of initiative efforts needed to be communicated effectively in order to continue water conservation research and education, Harris said. He pointed out that a team of engineers and economists with the Rio Grande Basin Initiative had documented astounding amounts of water that could be saved by renovating infrastructure of aging irrigation districts in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
“One analysis documented an expected water savings of 10,508 acre-feet, or 3.4 billion gallons, from the proposed renovation projects in Harlingen Irrigation District Cameron County No. 1,” he said. “That’s more than 20 percent of the water used annually for agriculture in the district. This is the kind of information and strategies we’re developing that we need to let the public and elected officials know about.”
He went on to point out other scientific studies in the initiative showing farmers could save 25 percent of irrigation water simply by knowing and monitoring their crops’ water requirements and irrigating accordingly.
“Here’s another one,” Harris said. “Water-thirsty saltcedar trees along the Pecos River use as much as 7.7 acre-feet of water per acre per year, or 2.5 million gallons. That’s a huge impact statement for us. That tells us that as we put money into saltcedar control, we can save huge amounts of water. It’s important for us to release this type of outcome data that’s based on good, solid, scientific reference points.”
In opening statements, Ed Hiler, vice chancellor and dean of Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, said conservation of urban and agricultural irrigation water is key to sustaining social, economic and environmental development in the Rio Grande Basin of Texas and New Mexico.
Now in its third year, the Rio Grande Basin Initiative has gained momentum and almost daily acquires new colleagues from various agencies and entities already working on related water issues, according to Craig Runyan, director of the New Mexico portion of the Rio Grande Basin Initiative and water quality coordinator with New Mexico Cooperative Extension.
“We’ve got to keep up the momentum,” he said. “Keep up the progress and there’s perhaps no end to what we can do to help achieve real water conservation, particularly in the agricultural area.”
