By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Members of a water coalition group met recently to discuss the city of Del Rio’s plans for
a new municipal well, anticipated increases in local water rates, a public education
campaign and a variety of other regional water issues.
Gage Brown, an organizer with The Border Organization in Uvalde and Del Rio and a
member of the Las Moras Springs Conservation Association in Kinney County, served as
the moderator for the meeting, which was held May 30 in the meeting room at the Border
Federal Credit Union on North Bedell Avenue.
Also participating in the meeting were Jerry Simpton, a chairman with The Bank and
Trust, who has served on the Region J Water Planning Group for about 30 years; Geoff
Beto, a member of the environmental division at Laughlin Air Force Base; Joanny
Guidin, natural resource manager for Laughlin Air Force Base; Ronda Hargrove, a Del
Rio business owner and rancher; Karen Gonzalez with the San Felipe Creek Coalition;
private citizen Josh BuenRostro, Jessie F. Fuentes, with the Eagle Pass Border Coalition;
and members of the media.
The Southwest Water Coalition was formed in September 2024 with an eye on
addressing regional water issues.
Brown began the meeting by telling members that she hopes to form a steering committee
for the group to streamline future meeting agendas. She also gave a recap of the
discussions held during the group’s April meeting, and members of the group also went
over the results of a recent cleanup of the San Felipe Creek.
Brown said City Manager Shawna Burkhart attended the group’s April meeting and
spoke about the city’s priorities for water infrastructure projects and an anticipated
increase in city water rates that will likely occur sometime this year as the city seeks
loans for those priority water projects.
Brown said leaders of the coalition felt they needed to speak further with Burkhart and
scheduled a meeting with her and City Public Works Director Greg Velazquez.
She said she, Hargrove, Gonzalez and Carlos Coronado, a leader with The Border
Organization, attended the meeting with Burkhart and Velazquez, noting they were told
the city’s new municipal well, to be sited adjacent to the golf course “is pretty much a
done deal.”
Brown also said they spoke about the proposed increases in city water rates. She said the
city is currently conducting a rate study, which will be presented to the Del Rio City
Council when it is complete, and the council will make the final decision about whether
or not to increase the water rates and how much those increases will be.
“Some of the concerns we voiced at the meeting with Ms. Burkhart and Mr. Velazquez
were, we know that there’s a margin between the county rates and the city rates already,
and we know that the county rates also apply to people living in colonias outside the city
limits, who are already very low income, but they’re still paying 18 percent more than
people inside the city, and the city manager hinted that margin would probably remain
the same, and they would go up the same,” Brown said.
Brown said there was some discussion about lobbying the city council to institute “a
tiered (water) rate. . . where it’s not going to hurt people who are already hurting.”
The group also spoke about the possibility of raising water rates for Laughlin and the
possibility that Laughlin will seek to drill its own water wells.
Hargrove shared with the group instances she has seen and photographed of residents in
the city and county wasting and stealing water. In one case, she said, someone on
Hamilton Lane attached a pipe to a fire hydrant to run water onto their property.
Simpton spoke at length about an education campaign by the San Antonio Water System
(SAWS), which, he said, was “facing the kind of issues we’re facing right now 20 years
ago.”
Simpton said SAWS created a five-year plan, sought a diversity of water sources for the
city and largely succeeded in educating San Antonio residents to use less water in their
homes and yards.
The group then turned its discussion to the creation of a logo and tagline. (See separate
story here.)
Brown said during the group’s next meeting, members will hear a presentation of the
history of attempts to create a groundwater conservation district in Val Verde County, as
well as a proposal to formalize the Southwest Water Coalition’s structure.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
