
txH2O Winter 2021
The Rio Grande

Getting to Know the Rio Grande
You may think you know the Rio Grande — or perhaps you know it as the Rio Bravo as it is commonly called in Mexico. But you probably only know a small piece of the overall picture. It is one river but, in many ways, it is so much more.

The land along the Rio Grande is one of the agricultural homes of many of Texas’ state symbols. Pecans are the state tree and nut, cotton is the state fabric and fiber, red grapefruit is the state fruit and 1015 onions — a Texas-developed sweet onion variety — is the state vegetable.

Why Agricultural Water Efficiency Efforts Don’t Always Pencil Out
The water of the Rio Grande drew people to the area and it — via irrigation — made the desert bloom into a garden of agricultural abundance.

From where the Rio Grande springs forth in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains to where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, the river supports an ever-growing population, vital agriculture and vast ecosystems today.

The Community Keeping a Little River Working
Even rivers like the Rio Grande need help sometimes. The Arroyo Colorado is often called “the little river with a big job,” and that job is as a drainage to the Rio Grande and the people and ecosystems that depend on it.

Water Competition and Cooperation at the Crossroads
The Rio Grande is a convergence point. Established as the U.S.–Mexico border in 1848, the river travels through two countries, three U.S. states, four Mexican states and numerous cities, irrigation districts and farms.

Every five years a water clock ticks down to a due date between the U.S. and Mexico. According to a 77-year-old agreement, Mexico must deliver water from the Rio Grande to the U.S. But with ever greater demands on the river and increased uncertainty of its flow due to climate change, those deliveries have faced increasingly tense problems that require ever more collaborative, flexible, human answers to solve.

When two countries are established, water does not stop flowing at the boundary between them. Its continuous stream circulates through the natural landscapes and ecosystems formed long before any countries were named.

Irrigation Changes Can Help Save Water and a River
One of the wonders of Texas is its agricultural abundance. However, because rainfall cannot meet the needs for dryland farming, farmers along the border rely on surface water from the Rio Grande to make up the difference. But this supply of water is dwindling.