Economic stimulus package could hasten levee repairs

Officials from the binational agency that oversees the Rio Grande Valley's flood levees are crossing their fingers that an economic stimulus check is headed their way.

At a meeting Wednesday in Weslaco, C.W. "Bill" Ruth, commissioner of the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, said he was hopeful the agency would receive $124 million to rehabilitate and raise the Valley's levees as part of a federal economic stimulus package.

If the commission received those federal funds, the agency would be able to finish all needed repairs to Hidalgo and Cameron counties' levees and interior floodways, Ruth said.

"It would give us the funds to virtually complete all the work that we identified in our hydraulic study," he said.

In previous years, the agency has received only a trickle of federal funds to work on levee improvements - $10 million last year, $2 million in years past. Officials said last year that it would take a total of $125 million to complete all the levee rehabilitation projects the agency says are needed.

If the stimulus package passes, the commission would receive 20 years' worth of funding all at once, Ruth said.

"This is the opportunity of a lifetime - a chance to get the levee system where it should be," he said.

Hidalgo County has nearly completed eight miles of levee repairs and 22 miles of a combined border fence-levee wall project.

The IBWC also has raised 19 miles of a continuous levee in Cameron County, officials said Wednesday.

Some Hidalgo County officials are concerned, however, that the additional federal funds, if granted, could end up stuck in a bureaucratic tangle, further delaying the needed levee repairs.

"The IBWC has a history of being very slow in building (projects), even when the money is available," said Godfrey Garza, the general manager of Hidalgo County Drainage District No. 1. The district is overseeing the border fence-levee construction, and Garza wants his agency to be in charge of other levee repairs in Hidalgo County.

The county can't afford to wait, he said. In 2007, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said parts of Hidalgo County could be declared a flood hazard area if the levees weren't fixed, which would drastically increase property owners' insurance premiums.

The IBWC is already preparing to act quickly in case the funding comes through, Ruth said. To keep the funding, the agency would have to show significant progress within about 180 days.

"It's an opportunity we just can't afford to miss, should it come to pass," he said.

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Melissa McEver covers health and environment issues for Valley Freedom Newspapers. She is based in Harlingen and you can reach her at (956) 430-6252.