Creation of Water Supply Corporations in the Rio Grande Valley BY RICHARD WARD FRYER
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hey are hard to miss, emerging and subsisting across the rural landscape like gigantic mushrooms. Unnoticed, they seem to have abided forever. But, to those that notice, and recall the days before they were there, they are a welcome sign of safe, clean drinking water. I’m referring to the water towers in the rural areas of Hidalgo, Cameron, and Willacy Counties. Many of these towers display a name which includes the letters “W.S.C.” for “water supply corporation”, a non-profit, member-owned, and member-controlled corporation governed by a board of directors elected by its members. Since their creation over 50 years ago, water supply corporations have made their mark on the lower Rio Grande Valley by providing clean and safe drinking water to rural residents. Water supply corporations were first authorized in the 1930’s under the federal Water Facilities Act. It wasn’t until the 1950’s and 60’s that water supply and development programs which were made available through the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA), now known
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as the United States Department of Agriculture- Rural Development (USDA-RD), began to gain momentum. They immediately improved the standard of living of the growing rural communities. The USDA-RD loans offered low-cost federal financing with forty-year terms and low interest rates and provided an affordable way for the water supply systems to grow responsibly while keeping water rates low for rural residents. These federally-insured loans also provided a degree of protection from encroaching municipalities pursuant to 7 U.S.C. 1926(b), which allowed the water supply corporations to plan for future growth and expansion without the threat of a municipality extracting critical customers from its service area. With the prospect of the initial grants and federally-insured, low-interest loans, rural residents met around kitchen tables and in coffee shops to form corporations for supplying retail water service to the rural communities that the neighboring municipalities wouldn’t serve. They went to work generating community interest and obtain-
