Hidalgo County Drainage District No. 1 read and adopted a resolution supporting Senate Bill 19‑67, legislation that seeks to amend the definition of a “flood project” so the district’s Delta Reclamation Project would be eligible for the Texas Flood Infrastructure Fund.

Jaime Salazar, chief of staff for the drainage district, read the resolution into the record. The resolution describes the district as a conservation and reclamation district created under Article XVI of the Texas Constitution and operating under chapters 49, 55 and 56 of the Texas Water Code. It notes the district constructed and ran a pilot Delta Reclamation Project in 2024 that the resolution says demonstrated the ability to “control, divert, capture, and impound floodwaters, stormwater, agricultural runoff, and treated wastewater effluent, and thereafter, treating and distributing the treated water for the purpose of creating an additional water supply source.”

The board then voted to approve the resolution. Commissioners also discussed the project’s potential scale: Commissioner David Fuentes said the district’s initial identified allocation is 62,000 acre‑feet and that the pilot indicates the project could serve tens of thousands of people; he described potential service to “80 to 100,000 people” in identified areas as the district’s initial extrapolation.

Commissioners and district staff framed the bill as a means to access funding to build an initial water‑treatment plant and scale a full Delta Reclamation Project that they say would be a novel potable water source created from brackish floodwater. Board members said they plan to testify at a committee hearing and continue advocacy to secure state funding if the bill moves forward.