Maverick County Water Control & Improvement District No. 1 to meet Friday, October 25th
By: Jose G. Landa
Copyright 2013 Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
The Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 Board of Directors is holding a special meeting on Friday, October 25, 2013, at 10 A.M. to discuss and take possible action on the request of Jerry Ahern of Agricultural Investments Associates, Inc. to purchase 2.3 percent of the Maverick County water district’s agricultural-use water rights.
One Maverick County citizen estimates that 2.3 percent of the local water district’s agricultural-use water rights is approximately 800 to 3,000 acres of water. Another Maverick County citizen reported that Agricultural Investments Associates, Inc. is offering the Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 up to $3.5 Million for the purchase of 2.3 percent of its agricultural-use water rights.
One Maverick County citizen told the Eagle Pass Business Journal that Agricultural Investments Associates, Inc. may seek to convert the agricultural-use water rights to mining-use water for Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Mine on the banks of Elm Creek near Thompson Road (FM 1588). At the Railroad Commission of Texas public hearings last year, Dos Republicas Coal Partnership representatives admitted to not having enough water rights to operate the proposed open surface coal mine in northern Eagle Pass and represented to the Railroad Commission of Texas that they would obtain or purchase sufficient water rights to operate the mine if the permit was granted.
Dos Republicas Coal Partnership has already purchased 800 acres of Rio Grande River water rights from a Starr County agricultural user and petitioned the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for permission to convert the agricultural-use water to mining-use, which TCEQ granted. With this TCEQ precedent, one local Maverick County citizen surmised that Agricultural Investments Associates, Inc. may sell, transfer, or assign the 2.3 percent water rights of the Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 to either Dos Republicas Coal Partnership or one of its subsidiaries for use in the operation of the Eagle Pass Mine and seek permission from TCEQ to convert this agricultural-use water for coal mining-use.
The Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 currently has four Board of Directors because its Board has failed to agree on a candidate to fill the vacancy on its Board caused by the resignation of Abdallah Moses despite four attempts to name a replacement. As a result of the local water district’s failure to agree on a replacement Board member, the decision whom to appoint as the fifth Board member will fall on Maverick County Commissioners Court.
The Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 Board of Directors meeting on Friday, October 25th at 10 A.M. at is headquarters located at the Maverick County Industrial Park (Radar Base) is open to the public.
