Burnt Orange Report

Rain On Your Parade

By Jim Dallas

The United States and Mexico resolved an important transnational issue yesterday, to wit Rio Grande and Colorado River water debts. Mexico has agreed to release 350,000 acre feet of water a year for the next three years, which will help prevent South Texas farmers from running out of water for their crops.

And what better way to mark such a diplomatic coup than... for Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison to go at each other.

Writes the Houston Chronicle:

"Our diplomacy has been successful, and every drop of the water owed you by Mexico is on the way," Gov. Rick Perry said in the Texas border city of Mission.

"These transfers will ensure that Texas growers have the water they need in time for the planting season and give our farmers, their families and employees some much-needed piece of mind," Perry said.

A statement from the governor's office said the agreement calls for annual meetings to assess conditions in the Rio Grande basin and to develop water-delivery schedules.

Not everyone in Texas was pleased with the arrangement.

Farmers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, some of whom are suing Mexico over the water debt, said the settlement requires repayment of what is owed without compensating them for past damages or fixing the problems that put the country in arrears.

"They're still not addressing what they're going to do when there's a shortage," said Sam Simmons, a farmer in the Lower Rio Grande Valley who is president of the Texas Cotton Producers.

Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison characterized the water deal as too little, too late. All the water owed by Mexico, she said, should be released immediately rather than over a three-year period.

"This agreement is long overdue, and it may well be the best deal available," Hutchison said in a statement released by her Washington office. "But the debt should have been paid in full. ... If anything, the Mexicans should have paid more water as interest on their long-overdue arrearage."

It's getting to the point where there's no more good news anymore, just Perry news and Hutchison news.