Eagle Pass Water Works System Board tables Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s request for Potable Water

By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc. Copyright 2015

The Eagle Pass Water Works System (EPWWS) Board of Trustees approved to table or postpone Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s request for City potable water for its Eagle Pass Mine site until all legal proceedings between the City of Eagle Pass and Dos Republicas are resolved or decided by the Courts or parties at their regular meeting held on Wednesday, July 8, 2015.

The EPWWS Board went into Executive Session to consult with their legal counsel Dos Republicas’ request for potable water and later returned into Open Session.

Eagle Pass Mayor Ramsey English Cantu made the motion to table Dos Republicas’ request for City of Eagle Pass potable water until all litigation concerning Dos Republicas is concluded out of respect for the City of Eagle Pass’ current position to oppose the opening of the controversial open surface coal mine known as “Eagle Pass Mine” only three miles north of the city limits of Eagle Pass and on the banks of Elm Creek, whose waters discharge directly into the Rio Grande River where the City of Eagle Pass has its Roberto Gonzalez Regional Municipal Water Treatment Plant only a mile or two downstream on the Rio Grande.

Board member Joe Rodriguez seconded the motion. Board President Hugo Zapata asked for discussion. After discussion, the EPWWS Board unanimously approved to table Dos Republicas’ request for potable water for its Eagle Pass Mine site until all litigation between the City of Eagle Pass and Dos Republicas is concluded. Board member Dr. Claudia Rodriguez-Wright was not present at the meeting.

During the Citizens Communication part of the agenda, Dos Republicas’ Public Relations Director Rudy Rodriguez of San Antonio, Texas advised the EPWWS Board of Trustees that Dos Republicas was requesting potable water for use in its administration building and mine site to be used by its employees on a daily basis. Rodriguez stated to the EPWWS Board that Dos Republicas was already receiving potable water from the EPWWS that was being trucked in and stored in a portable water storage tank for use as necessary by its employees. This statement by Rodriguez raised eyebrows among the EPWWS Board members and administration because to their knowledge Dos Republicas does not have any potable water account with the EPWWS.

“What is being asked for here is potable water. Currently there is water that is being provided and is being bought and coming from the Eagle Pass Water Works. Merely what we are now asking for is we pay for the water line and all it is, is potable water,” said Rudy Rodriguez.

George Baxter, Vice President of the Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, a non-profit organization of Maverick County citizens opposing the Dos Republicas coal mine, also spoke during the Citizens Communication part of the agenda and requested the EPWWS Board to deny Dos Republicas’ request for City of Eagle Pass potable water due to the possible contamination of the City of Eagle Pass’s sole source of potable water, the Rio Grande River, from the coal mine’s discharge of mining waters into Elm Creek and the Rio Grande River.

“We have a rather amazing situation as Dos Republicas will be conducting operations which will very likely result in the contamination of our sole source of drinking water. While at the same time they are demanding that the Eagle Pass Water Works System provide them with water that they want to use to expedite and facilitate their operation,” said George Baxter.

Baxter discussed the many environmental and public health concerns that the citizens of Eagle Pass and Maverick County may be exposed to if the controversial Dos Republicas open pit coal mine were to open and discharge its mining waters into Elm Creek and the Rio Grande River. “They could let it run (water) 24/7 into one of the retention ponds and take as much water as they want,” added Baxter. Open surface coal mines are notorious for using millions of gallons of water for their operations.

After the EPWWS Board meeting, the Eagle Pass Business Journal interviewed EPWWS General Manager Jorge Barrera concerning Dos Republicas’ representative Rudy Rodriguez’s statement that the coal mining company was already receiving potable water from the EPWWS which was being trucked and stored in a water storage tank. Barrera stated that Rodriguez’s comments were untrue to his knowledge as Dos Republicas has no such potable water contract with the EPWWS and that they do not have an account with the EPWWS. Barrera stated “we’re (EPWWS) not selling them any water. We will have to investigate that, they have never opened an account with us (EPWWS).”

Barrera noted that he would personally investigate Rodriguez’s statement that Dos Republicas was already receiving potable water from the EPWWS to determine if they are getting water from a third-party with a contract with the EPWWS or through which mechanism they are receiving allegedly EPWWS potable water and report back the his Board of Trustees.