Creation of Water Supply Corporations in the RGV

Creation of Water Supply Corporations in the Rio Grande Valley

BY RICHARD WARD FRYER

They 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 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-

ing easements for their planned infrastructure. These visionaries built a foundation of water treatment plants, pump stations, water towers, and pipelines to provide a safer alternative to the untreated canal water for their rural homes and communities. Before water supply corporations, rural residents used canal water piped into cisterns for their domestic needs. Drinking water was either obtained from shallow wells or brought in from a nearby town by the bottle or tank.

The local Irrigation Districts provided this untreated domestic water to the farmsteads well into the 1970’s. By this time, the water rights in the Rio Grande had been adjudicated and the Irrigation Districts were given certain allocations of municipal, domestic, and industrial-use water rights to supply their rural customers. Recognizing that their primary purpose was to provide irrigation water to farmers, the Districts willingly contracted with the newly formed water supply corporations to receive the treated water and supply it to their rural residents. This treated water was safe for drinking and food preparation and was a welcome improvement to the quality of rural life.

During the early years, North Alamo WSC, Mid Valley WSC, Stillman WSC, Mercedes Rural WSC, North Willacy WSC, Sunny Dew WSC, Sharyland WSC, East Rio Hondo WSC, Arroyo City WSC, Military Highway WSC, Olmito WSC, and El Jardin WSC were formed. Over the years, Mid Valley, Stillman, Mercedes Rural, North Willacy and Sunny Dew merged into North Alamo WSC, putting it on course to become the largest water supply corporation in Texas. In the early 2000’s, Arroyo City WSC merged with East Rio Hondo WSC. Today, North Alamo WSC, Sharyland WSC, East Rio Hondo WSC, Military Highway WSC, Olmito WSC, and El Jardin WSC continue to serve the rural residents in the lower Rio Grande Valley.

One of the biggest challenges facing water supply corporations today is the rapid urbanization of rural areas, particularly the areas along the boundaries of municipalities. Water supply corporations must provide a level of service and reliability equivalent to that of the municipalities while keeping overall costs low for their members. To meet this challenge, the water supply corporations must upgrade line sizes and add treatment and storage capacity. They have also expanded their services by building sewer treatment plants and collection systems to reduce their customers’ reliance on septic tanks in densely populated and low-lying areas. More recently, they have made significant investments in reverse osmosis plants to treat the plentiful source of brackish ground water and develop a source of water independent of the Rio Grande River. Water supply corporations that can’t keep up with the rapid growth are at risk of losing customers and valuable service area to the ever-expanding municipalities, which, in turn, endangers their ability to repay their federal debt without overburdening their membership.

Water supply corporations were created for the sole purpose of providing safe and reliable drinking water to areas that municipalities wouldn’t serve. They have accomplished this by working behind the scenes and have gone largely unnoticed, except by the original rural residents, who for years did not have clean or adequate water service to their homes and farms.

Their water towers serve as silent, yet visible monuments to the foresight and sacrifice of the rural communities to improve their standard of living. So, the next time you notice a water tower with the “W.S.C.” painted on its side, be sure to remember the rural residents who had the community-minded mentality for service that formed these corporations, and the individuals who continue to carry on their legacy of service today.

Richard Ward Fryer is an attorney with Fryer & Hansen, PLLC. He represents many water supply corporations and water districts in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.