Let's re-write the equation for the greater good

By María Eugenia Guerra

The archival literature of the construction of the Falcon Reservoir -- an engineering feat that sacrificed over 100,000 acres of land grant ranches and farms in Zapata County and Guerrero, Tamps. -- offers up one single and narrow point that leaps from the pages of news stories, official documents, and the program for the October day in 1953 that the dam was dedicated: the Falcon Reservoir was built for the express purpose of water delivery to the lower Río Grande Valley so that it could prosper. The reservoir at Zapata, and the Río Grande itself, were meant only to serve as a conduit and as a means of conveyance for water to the citrus producers, vegetable farmers, and cane growers of South Texas.
Treachery may have had no finer moment when five decades ago the residents of Zapata accepted, albeit reluctantly, the decisions of their own county leaders and the questionable wisdom of the bureaucrats of two countries who said they worked for the greater good. In the name of hydroelectric generation, flood control, and water conservation, those bureaucrats dammed the Río Grande -- figuratively and in fact -- and built the Falcon Reservoir. The damming of the life-giving river was as much an act of harnessing the will of El Río Bravo del Norte as it was, according to many who lost their homes, farms, and ranches in the early 50s, an act of damnation. Over time, that harness has in fact become a yoke on the backs of those who have tried to make a living from a lake whose level is changed never to suit the needs of the communities around it, but rather to suit those for whom the lake was built in the first place -- the farmers of the Río Grande Valley. As lake levels have risen and fallen over time, so have the fortunes and fates of Zapatans, many of whom have built businesses predicated on the restaurant, lodging, and gasoline dollars spent in their community by the anglers, eco-tourists, and bird watchers who value the natural resource of the reservoir.
Fast forward from the drama of the early 50s loss of those ancestral homes and lands. Fast forward through the heartbreak of condemnation of land grant settlements like Guerrero Viejo, Lopeño, Falcón, El Clareño, San Bartolo, and Uribeño with their long and treasured histories and their beautiful vernacular architecture. Fast forward from the humiliation of trying to settle with the federal government for nickels on the dollar for the value of those condemned properties.
Keep moving, put yourselves on the streets and in the businesses of Zapata today and you'll conclude as many have that Zapata drew then and draws now the short end of the political stick euphemized so long ago by bureaucrats as the greater good.
While the issues of fluctuating water levels, re-stocking of fish, and the lack of vigilance for illegal commercial netters from Mexico are the crux of what ails the reservoir today, there is an additional component, and it rests with those who for 50 years have had the authority and resources to address those issues, but have elected not to act decisively. Shame on the International Boundary and Water Commission, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for the many taxpayer-funded studies, assessments, and surveys undertaken and never acted upon -- environmental assessments about the river's pollutants, siltation, turbidity; surveys about disappearing fish species.
Despite the well-documented two-fold devastation to Zapata of prolonged drought and his agency's water storage practices at Amistand and Falcon, TCEQ chair Robert J. Huston and his Watermaster continue to patronize Zapatans with the proviso that the downriver water needs for municipalities and irrigation take priority over water for recreational use in Zapata. Sport fishing and tourism may be recreational activities, but earning a living from them is an integral component of the local economy.
The history of this region relative to state and federal agency action for the greater good of Zapata is dismal. The early 1950s were a heartbreak for this and all the little condemned and re-located towns of Zapata. Never mind the loss of lands that once gave many Zapatans the dignity of earning an honest living on their own land. These days, that would be water under the Veleño Bridge, if there was any.
We wish the newly named Falcon Lake Task Force well and we pray for decisive, innovative action that will protect the future of this beautiful body of water, this treasure of a wildlife ecosystem that is home to a diversity of humans and other mammals, fish, reptiles, waterfowl, and migratory birds. We implore members of the Task Force to factor the needs of Zapata County into a new equation for the greater good.
We pray for sudden, unordinary, and responsible initiatives on the part of Zapata County elected and appointed officials to do more to remove trash from the creeks of the watershed and the shores of the reservoir.
We pray for rain.