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The Brownsville Public Utility Board’s Resaca de la Guerra Resilience and Restoration Project is in line for $3 million in federal funds through the Bureau of Reclamation.
The office of U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Brownsville, announced the news Jan. 24. The grant, part of a nationwide investment in improving water reliability and ecosystem health, is funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021.
BPUB’s Resaca Restoration Project involves restoring local habitat by removing invasive plant life and replanting native species, cleaning up trash and debris from runoff entering the resaca, and the addition walking trails among other improvements.
Brownsville Mayor John Cowen Jr., who also serves on the BPUB board, said receiving the “Notice of Funding Opportunity” puts the city a step closer toward the goal of restoring and protecting Resaca de la Guerra, one of the city’s major resaca systems, extending from west of Resaca De La Palma State Park to east of the Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport.
“Through nature-based solutions and intentional infrastructure improvements, this project addresses the environmental challenges that have affected the resaca for years, and supports our ongoing efforts to keep utility rates low for our customers,” he said.
“By minimizing costly repairs and reducing the need for extensive water control measures, we are investing in long-term cost savings that will directly ensure our water rates remain low while effectively managing our precious resources,” he added.
Gonzalez, who vowed to continue working to bring additional resaca restoration resources, in 2024 helped secure $2 million toward that goal through Community Project Funding.
“We must conserve Brownsville’s unique and historic resacas so that future generations can experience their natural beauty and environmental benefits,” he said. “Not only do they help shape Brownsville’s unique landscape, but they also mitigate flooding and are vital to our local ecosystem.”
Among the benefits of resaca restoration cited by BPUB are better storm drainage, improved water quality, increased potable water storage, economic development, recreation and ecotourism. Restoration also benefits migrating birds (Central and Pacific flyways), and restores critical aquatic and riparian (wetland) habitat as well as habitat for federal- and state-listed species, according to BPUB.
Challenges to the restoration program include aging infrastructure, altered hydrology/sediment transport, several inches of accumulated sediment in resacas (dredging is part of restoration), development, alteration and fragmentation of species, invasive species and pollution,” BPUB said.