McAllen’s 2070 Gamble: Can a 10% Margin and a Salty Abyss Support 400,000 People ? The Rio Grande is No Longer Enough For a century, the Rio Grande has been the undisputed lifeblood of McAllen, Texas. But today, that lifeblood is thinning. The river’s reliability is faltering under the weight of "gasping" reservoirs at Falcon and Amistad, which frequently struggle against the dual pressures of multi-year droughts and the chronic uncertainty of international treaty deliveries. For a city built...

Growth at All Costs in a Region Under Environmental Stress The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) is experiencing accelerated population growth, industrial expansion, and urban development across cities such as McAllen, Edinburg, Harlingen, and Brownsville. At the same time, the region is confronting escalating infrastructure strain tied to: Repeated extreme rainfall events Chronic flood risk Water supply vulnerability Aging drainage systems Increasing electricity demand Rapid land-use conversion This...

What Happened to the Air in the Rio Grande Valley