COUNTY, PCT. 2, SOLVING WATER WOES IN SAN PEDRO

By Juan Montoya
For years the residents of San Pedro up Military Highway have been suffering from the shortcomings of the Military Highway Water Supply Corp.
The tap water, when there is water, is yellow, green, or some other unsavory (and smelly) hue.
And for just as long, the residents of this burg have been petitioning the board of directors and administrators of the MHWSC.

According to them, the results have been unsatisfactory. So, without any satisfaction forthcoming from the MHWSC, they turned to the Cameron County Commissioners Court.

Never mind that the county is not in the water business. But, as they figured, since they are the overall political authority in the county, if anyone can get something done it has to be them.
San Pedro lies within the jurisdiction of the county's Pct. 2 commissioner Alex Dominguez, and for the past few weeks he and Cameron County Judge Pete Sepulveda have been the lightning rods for the residents' complaints.

Dominguez said he had met with residents on several occasions and that the administrators of the system had been called to the county courthouse to see what could be done about the problem.
"Apparently, the colors in the water is a result of the old piping that has been there since the MHWSC has been serving the area," he said late Saturday. "San Pedro is at the tail end of the system and it's been a while since it's been flushed."

Dominguez said that the directors of the MHWSC were surprised when he suggested that they call the Brownsville Public Utility Board, their neighboring water supplier to see what could be done about helping them with their water quality.
"They seemed surprised when we called them and the PUB people showed up to talk to them," he said. "They figured they wouldn't come."
In fact, the PUBl already services water supply needs for Veterans Memorial High School just down the road from San Pedro.

"In fact, some of the Military Highway lines run parallel to PUB's lines," Dominguez said. "We think that PUB could supply good water to San Pedro while the Military Highway Water Supply flushes out their old lines or replace them. PUB has indicated that it is ready to help."

Unlike MHWSC which teats its own water, El Jardin Water Supply Corp. to the east of Brownsville simply buys and resells the water already treated by PUB. El Jardin maintains the lines in their service area. Over time, some of El Jardin's service area has have overlapped with PUB and both servers have coexisted providing water to residents there. Ideally, the same could happen in San Pedro, to the west of PUB's service area.

"We are moving quickly to address the issues at San Pedro with the assistance of PUB," Dominguez said. "The county is not in the water supply business but we realize that the matter could quickly become a health hazard if we don't find a solution to this."