The Lower Rio Grande Valley received 110 percent of normal rainfall for the same period, but water district officials say the water flows away from the Rio Grande, the Valley's primary water source. Now the report has become a political hot potato. The Valley water authority presented the findings to John Bernal, the U.S. commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission. Meanwhile, Texas Lt. Gov. Rick Perry and state Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs sent a joint letter to Mr. Bernal, asking him to press for a resolution to the problem. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison complained to the Mexican ambassador, Jeszs Reyes Heroles, who said he would relay U.S. concerns to Mexico City.
Mexican officials dispute the findings.
They acknowledge that they received the rain described in the Brandes report. But they say it fell so lightly that it did not flow into the Rio Grande tributaries. Grim conditions Reservoirs have been so low that farmers on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande are also suffering. In Chihuahua, farmers in Delicias had to do without irrigation in 1995, leading to heavy losses. This fall's harvest might also be threatened.