Reprint from the Progress Times - July 13, 2007
©Progress Times 2007 - All Rights Reserved

D.C. delegation delivers levee relief

"It was a monumental day. We made some great advances."

Those were the words of Hidalgo County Judge J. D. Salinas in a call to the Progress Times from the Washington, D.C. office of Congressman Henry Cuellar Wednesday evening. Judge Salinas and a South Texas delegation had just completed a series of meetings with high-level officials to discuss pressing issues concerning the levees in the Rio Grande Valley.

A delegation of 12 South Texas leaders met with representatives of Senator John Cornyn’s office, IBWC, FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar Wednesday. In addition to Judge Salinas, others in the Texas delegation included Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos, Texas State Rep. Juan Escobar (District 43), Hidalgo County Commissioners Sylvia Handy and Hector "Tito" Palacios and Hidalgo County Drainage District No. 1 Manager Godfrey Garza Jr. Congressman Cuellar’s office arranged the meetings.

Salinas said they were in meetings all day, first with Commissioner Carlos Marin of the International Boundary and Water Commission, then with Congressman Cuellar’s office, then with Congressman Solomon Ortiz and later in a combined meeting with FEMA, IBWC and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The delegation brought home good news concerning funding for the levee improvements. Congressman Cuellar secured $15.5 million in the House, on June 26, for levee improvements. Although the Senate earlier approved only $10 million for the South Texas levees, the delegation secured a commitment from Senator Cornyn to push the Conference Committee to try to increase the Senate version to at least $15.5 million.

One of the most significant achievements of the delegation was securing an agreement to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between IBWC and Hidalgo County Drainage District No. 1. A ceremonial signing of the MOU is set for July 16. The memorandum will contain two key provisions. First, it will allow local money to be used for levee improvements. Second, it will open the way to allow recovery of those local funds through federal funding sources.

"This means we can use the local bond monies to begin survey and preliminary work so we can go ahead and get started on the levee," said Salinas.

Another significant development that emerged from the meetings was a commitment that FEMA would not impose more flood insurance requirements.

"We did get a commitment from FEMA that if we go ahead and fix the levees, they will not require flood insurance. There will not need to be any additional burden on our taxpayers," Judge Salinas said.

Regarding the new flood plain draft maps due to be released by FEMA September 30, Salinas said FEMA is not able to meet that date and "that will give us some time." He said, "They couldn’t tell us a date. We asked for that." But they will revisit the maps and take the county’s levee improvement plans into consideration.

Judge Salinas said the new levee standards being imposed by IBWC were not discussed. That has been discussed before. But, he said, "Any work we do on the levees will bring them up to the new standards."

Salinas said going into the meetings he wanted three commitments: 1) that IBWC will certify the levees if the county fixes them, 2) that the county will be reimbursed for the cost of any levee improvements and 3) the requirement for flood insurance will be removed as a mandatory requirement.

"We got those commitments," he said.

When asked how much money the county will have available now for levee improvements, he said we have up to $100 million—the amount of the bond issue—if necessary. He said we have a commitment to fix the levees, regardless. It’s a priority.

Last week, The Monitor reported that Hidalgo County was considering a lawsuit against FEMA to prevent them from releasing a new floodplain map which would put most of Hidalgo County in a high risk flood zone.

After Wednesday’s meetings, Judge Salinas said, "Legal is our last option. After today’s meetings, I don’t expect a suit to be filed." He said they did Wednesday what they would have hoped to accomplish with a lawsuit.