MCALLEN -- The Valley hasn’t seen rain in quite some time.
Now that we are in a drought, it is time we start conserving water.
McAllen is 6 inches below normal for rain.
Harlingen is 9 inches and Brownsville at 6.6 inches below normal.
“We’ve seen rain up in Northeast Texas and Mexico and that does come into our river, but it’s not enough,” said water education specialist for the City of McAllen, David Rios. “We still need to have rain here on our turf, in the Valley area.”
Rios said even though we have seen rain in the past and our lake was plentiful, we are sharing half of our water with Mexico.
“That’s what we need everyone to realize out here. The lake is not all ours, only half of the water there is ours,” said Rios.
These dry conditions have forced McAllen city leaders to take action and jump start their water conservation plan.
The first level is voluntary. Residents are asked to limit the amount of water they use.
The rest of the levels are mandatory and require certain days and times that water can be used.
"McAllen is pumping out quite a bit of water right now, we're averaging 45 to 50 million gallons a day," said Rios.
A number, Rios said, residents need to cut back on.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT