HBA-KDB H.C.R. 88 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.C.R. 88 By: Oliveira Natural Resources 2/15/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In 1944, a treaty was signed by the United States and Mexico that governs the management of water in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo from Fort Quitman to the Gulf of Mexico. The International Boundary and Water Commission (commission), also known as the Comisi_n Internacional de L_mites y Agua in Mexico, is charged with the administration of the 1944 treaty. Article 4 of the treaty allocates the water shared by the two countries such that one-third of the flow reaching the main channel of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo from six Mexican tributary basins, or a minimum from those basins of not less than annual 350,000 acrefeet averaged over a cycle of five consecutive years, is allocated to the United States. A five-year accounting period begins whenever the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs are at capacity. In the event of an extraordinary drought, any deficit existing at the end of the five years shall be repaid from water of the tributaries over an ensuing period of another five years, or until the reservoirs refill and the debt is nullified. An accounting cycle began in October 1992, when the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs last reached capacity, and over the next half decade, when minimum deliveries under the treaty should have totaled 1,750,000 acre-feet for the five years, actual deliveries were only 726,000 acre-feet, rendering a deficit of 1,024,000 acre-feet, which has grown to 1,409,000 acre-feet over the last three years.. With a serious drought affecting Texas, it is imperative that the existing water debt from Mexico be repaid. House Concurrent Resolution 88 requests the commission to assure that Mexico meet its Article 4 delivery obligations under the 1944 treaty. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this resolution does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Concurrent Resolution 88 provides that the state legislature request the International Boundary and Water Commission (commission) to assure that Mexico meet its Article 4 delivery obligations under the 1944 treaty governing the sharing of waters from the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin. The resolution also provides that the Texas secretary of state forward a copy of this resolution to the United States and Mexican sections of the commission, the Texas Water Development Board, the Region M water planning group, and to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission to the attention of the Texas watermaster for this state's lower Rio Grande water rights.