Texas Farm Bureau State Director Testifies on Mexico Water Debt

Mexico currently owes the U.S. over 1 million acre-feet of water under the 1944 Water Treaty, a shortfall that has significantly impacted farmers and ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley.

Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) District 13 State Director Brian Jones, a row crop farmer from the Valley, testified before the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs on the severity of Mexico’s noncompliance and the devastating consequences it has had on South Texas agriculture.

“We are halfway into the fifth year of this five-year cycle, and Mexico is over 1 million acre-feet behind in water deliveries despite the U.S. accepting non-treaty deliveries to satisfy parts of this debt,” Jones  told the committee.

Under the 1944 Water Treaty, Mexico is required to deliver an average of 350,000 acre-feet of water annually to the U.S. over five-year cycles, totaling 1.75 million acre-feet per cycle. About 70% of the water that flows to the Rio Grande below Fort Quitman originates in Mexico, making treaty compliance critical for Texas farmers.

Other water sources for agriculture—the Amistad and Falcon Reservoirs—are at critically low levels, leaving little water available for irrigation.

“What is crystal clear is that Mexico has no intention of sharing any amount of water they can capture for their own use,” he said. “Since the treaty was signed 80 years ago, Mexico has constructed nine major reservoirs in the watershed. In September 2022, tropical storms filled Mexico’s reservoirs. Despite being 350,000 acre-feet behind in water deliveries at that time, Mexico held the water behind their dams—opting to use it to irrigate their own crops. This makes the outlook moving forward very bleak.“

But the treaty lacks enforcement mechanics for timely deliveries. While shortfalls must be repaid in the following five-year cycle, there is no set timeline within that cycle.

“Under the U.S. State Department’s historic interpretation, Mexico could hypothetically wait until the last day of the second five-year cycle to repay this debt. The effects of this would be catastrophic for all of South Texas,” Jones said.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension estimates that the lack of irrigation water costs South Texas about $993 million annually.

In 2024, Texas’s only sugar mill closed after the Rio Grande Valley’s sugar industry dried up.

The future of Texas citrus is also at risk, as the industry faces loss of trees to drought, freezes and ongoing water shortages linked to Mexico’s failure to meet its obligations.

In response, Texas lawmakers have taken steps to push for action. In January, a bipartisan group of lawmakers encouraged the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to press Mexico to comply with the treaty.

“Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, Congressmen Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez and Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz have all played key roles in helping secure $280 million in disaster assistance for Rio Grande Valley farmers through USDA,” Jones said. “Row crop farmers like myself have filed for prevented planting through USDA RMA’s crop insurance program. Please note that while prevented planting helps, it really doesn’t even cover my costs for the year.”

For the past three years, Jones has been forced to only plant half of the number of acres he typically would due to the lack of irrigation water.

Some relief came in November 2024 when Minute Order (MO) 331 was signed, allowing limited use of water releases from reservoirs in Mexico’s Rio San Jaun basin.

“While this water was not available or affordable for everyone, it did provide relief for some,” he said. “MO 331 also has language in it that would allow Mexico to paper transfer water held in Falcon or Amistad reservoirs to Texas, alleviating the need for a total inflow of 3 million acre-feet.”

Still, the situation remains dire.

“The bottom line is that relying on a foreign country for water is not a great water supply strategy. Actions must be taken to force compliance with the treaty,” Jones said. “Even though some people say this is really a federal issue and not a state issue, we disagree. We think it is very appropriate for the State of Texas to be engaged. Mexico is not just depriving Texans in the Rio Grande Valley of water. Mexico is depriving the state of Texas of its property under the treaty.”

Texas Farm Bureau continues to urge lawmakers to act now, because the future of Texas agriculture depend on it.