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Discussion turns heated at meeting
Published August 26, 2009
No one is trying to stop residents from living along the Rio Grande, but officials warned Tuesday it is done with a risk.
“We are not trying to tell you you can't live on Vega Verde, we are just telling you the risks,” said Brad Sargent, a United States International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) official, to a standing-room only crowd Tuesday night.
It has been estimated that around 200 people reside along the banks of the Rio Grande in an area called Vega Verde, known and loved by residents for its sprawling views of the river.
Many of those residents were affected by floodwaters last September when the (IBWC) upped the flow from Amistad Dam following dam failures in Mexico further upstream from Lake Amistad.
“You may have been flooded, but had we not (released water from the dam), flooding would've been much worse,” said Texas Commission of Environmental quality representative Steve Niemeyer, whose agency controls releases of water until the reservoir reaches its conservation level of 1,117 feet.
At that point control of release is turned over to IBWC.
Officials also noted that while last year's flooding was bad, it's small scale compared to what could happen.
The flooding in September 2008 was caused when 500 cubic meters of water per second were released from the dam.
According to a graph presented Tuesday, that was at the low end of what can be released from the dam in emergency situations.
“The flooding last year, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't that bad,” said Werner Graham, who works for IBWC at Amistad Dam.
Most residents, however, say they are fully aware of the flooding issues and the risks involved with living where they do.
Their reason for attending Tuesday's meeting was to find out why laws never before enforced in the area are now being pushed on them.
When officials explained that a 1995 state law prohibits residents within five miles of the border from selling property without first supplying permanent potable water and sewage solutions, discussions got heated.
“The state and the county have ignored us as a group of people for 38 years, for as long as we've lived here,” shouted Etta Wickliff. “And no one has ever told us about these laws until tonight.”
When the county's health official and risk management officer Roger Cerny explained the responsibility to alert buyers to the law lay at the heels of sellers, some audience members rose to their feet to respond.
“In 1997 I bought my property from a county auction,” snapped David Rosser.
Another woman yelled she had bought her property from a sheriff's auction.
In both cases, neither buyers were made aware of the 1995 law and many attending Tuesday’s meeting left feeling slighted by their realtors and county officials.
They also now feel bound by law to their property, unable to sell it without the county's seal of approval, and unable to afford to install the sewer and water needed to obtain that approval.
“We've got a four-bedroom house on the river we can't sell for a dime now because if the county decides we're out of compliance, we're at their mercy,” said Wickliff.
Longtime Vega resident Terri King has similar concerns.
King has a utility pole on her property that leans. So she installed a new one and was ready to call the utility company to have electric moved, but then she started hearing if she disconnected, she might not get service again. According to officials, law states before utility companies can provide service, the property owner must have the county's certificate of compliance.
King says though her property has potable water and a septic system, she has not applied for a county permit because she has no way to prove the septic exists.
“It was already there when I bought the property and I don't have anything that says it's there,” says King. “If (the county) wants to pay to come dig it up and take a look they can, but that's the only proof I have.”
Then, there are the recreational property owners along the Vega like Brian Goodwin from New Mexico.
All Goodwin wants to do is install utility hookups for recreational vehicles so he doesn't have to cart around a generator, but he cannot get county approval.
“I don't see why I can't do that. I don't want to live there, we just come down to go tubing and the RVs are self-contained,” said a frustrated Goodwin, who drove to town specifically for Tuesday's meeting. “We would like to utilize the property more, but can't.”
While some say they left Tuesday's meeting with just as many questions as when they arrived, others found it informative and helpful.
“I thought it was very good, very informative,” said Twila Blackstock, who said receiving contact information from officials was an added benefit.
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