WATER QUAL MGMT RIO GRNDE/BRVO
| Clients: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and CONAGUA, Mexico’s federal water agency. Other clients include the US. Environmental Protection Agency, the International Boundary and Water Commission, the Comisión Internacional de Limits y Aguas, the Rio Bravo River Basin Council, and Tamaulipas’ state water agency, Comisión Estatal del Agua de Tamaulipas. The purpose of the Spring 2024 Meadows PRP is to provide information to six key stakeholders, as listed above: the environmental agencies of the states of Texas and Tamaulipas, the federal environmental agencies of the US and Mexico, and binational water management agency along the border, the IBEC/CILA. The Spring 2024 Meadows Fellows PRP will evaluate options for managing salinity in the Lower Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin (LRG/RB) and use the information to develop recommendations for Mexican, Texas and US agencies for improving water quality in the LRG/RB. Background: One of the most productive elements of US-Mexican relations in 2023-24 is trans-boundary environmental quality, particularly between Texas and its four bordering Mexican states: Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and Chihuahua. The two nations have worked together effectively for decades since the North American Free Trade Agreement to reduce air, water, solid and hazardous waste pollution, improve the border air and water quality, and address (but by no means resolve) water quantity and access conflicts. One of the reasons for the success in reducing pollution and improving ambient environmental quality along the Texas-Mexico border is the close cooperation between Texas and its Mexican border states through initiatives such as Border 2000, Border 2012, Border 2020 and now Border 2025, with Texas taking the institutional lead for two regional cooperative processes, the so-called four-state (Texas, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila) and three-state (Texas, New Mexico and Chihuahua). The class is working with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the environmental agency for the State of Texas and CONAGUA, Mexico’s federal water agency, its National Water Commission. CONAGUA is an administrative and technical agency within Mexico's Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) that administers national waters, manages and controls the country's hydrological system, and promotes social development. TCEQ’s headquarters are located at 12100 Park 35 Circle in Austin. TCEQ is the fourth largest environmental agency in the United States that employs approximately 2,780 employees, has 69 regional offices, and had a $378 million operating budget for the 2021 fiscal year. Its mission is: “The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality strives to protect Texas’ public health and natural resources, consistent with sustainable economic development.” TCEQ’s goal is clean air, clean water, and the safe management of waste. The class will work with TCEQ, CONAGUA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Mexican SEMARNAT, the binational International Boundary and Water Commission and its Mexican section Comision Internacional de Limits y Aguas, as well as Tamaulipas’ state water agency, Comisión Estatal del Agua de Tamaulipas on a binational project to improve water quality in the Lower Rio Grande/Rio Bravo below Falcon Dam to reduce salinity. Salinity in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo The Lower Rio Grande/Rio Bravo (LRG/RB) is experiencing increasing salinity, which affects millions of people living in the Texas/Tamaulipas region who rely on the LRG/RB for domestic, commercial and industrial water use, as well as irrigation. Increasing salinity in the LRG/RB is particularly harmful to agricultural production, which is the major source of income on both the Mexican and the U.S. sides of the river. Students in previous LBJ School classes have developed a mass balance model of LRG/RB salinity based on the best available data for both conductance data (from the TCEQ) and flow data (from the US Geological Survey [USGS] and the IBWC from gauges they monitor along the Rio Grande). Students in Fall 2023 collected data from both salinity and flow data from LRG/RB locations to complete a mass balance as well as information on groundwater flows, rainfall, tributaries, agricultural return flows, water withdrawals along the river, and non-point source pollution that are used to further characterize salinity issues. A salinity mass balance in the LRG/RB was completed in Excel and indicates how much the salt load increased or decreased at various sites along the LRG/RB relative to a location upstream. The mass balance enables users to estimate how external sources/sinks influence the increase or decrease in the salt load in the LRG/RB. This spreadsheet approach serves as an initial foundation for a salinity analysis and can be used to model salinity and simulate proposed solutions. The purpose of the Spring 2024 Meadows Fellows PRP is to conduct a thorough and robust salinity analysis in the LRG/RB and use the information to develop recommendations that could be considered by all Mexican and US water users for improving water quality in the LRG/RB. This project will involve representative of multiple government agencies in the class and will be conducted in cooperation with Mexican government research staff, university faculty from UNAM and graduate students. Class members will meet each Tuesday from 6 to 9 pm. This class is appropriate for the following degree students: Ph.D.; M.P.Aff; MGPS; M.P.Aff-DC; MGPS-DC. Ewell prepared undergraduates are also welcome. Students enrolled in the Meadows Fellows Spring 2024 PRP are eligible to travel to Mexico during the academic year. Funding is available in Summer 2024 through the Global Career Launch-Mexico program of Texas Global and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies to support students who wish to provide research and consulting services to Mexican governmental agencies along the border and in Mexico City. Some of Summer 2024 internships will require technical skills or knowledge, as specified by the sponsoring organizations. In some cases, a student will possess sufficient skills prior to enrollment in the class. If a student has no experience with a sill, the PRP class will help each individual develop skills to be able to perform the intended tasks of the internship as part of the expectations for this course. Supplemental funding sources include research contracts at UT, International Student Fee Scholarships, Curtis W. Meadows, Jr. Social Enterprise Fellows, Crook Fellowships, LBJ School-based support for internships, or from other sources, including scholarships and fellowships. Some useful websites include: * https://global.utexas.edu/abroad/funding/scholarships * https://www.scholarshiptab.com/scholarships/university-of-texas-at-aust… * http://utdirect.utexas.edu/student/abroad/globalassist.WBX * https://onestop.utexas.edu/managing-costs/scholarships-financial-aid/ LBJ School students are eligible to apply for funds to support unpaid summer internships following policies promulgated for Summer 2024, as indicated in a website prepared for Summer 2020 at: *https://lbj.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/LBJ_School_Internship_Polici…. Students also are eligible to raise funds through a so-called ‘HornRaiser’ process; see |
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