PRESIDIO COUNTY — At Wednesday’s meeting, Presidio County commissioners voted to declare a state of emergency in response to concerns about public water supplies in Presidio County’s unincorporated communities. The state of emergency officially lasts for 30 days and Commissioners Court can indefinitely renew the declaration if concerns persist.
The item was originally sparked by a water crisis in Shafter: for decades, residents have received safe drinking water free of charge from the nearby silver mine. Aurcana Silver purchased the mine in 2012 and continued providing water — but recent rumors of bankruptcy and pending sale of the mine have sparked concerns that residents might soon be left high and dry.
Since then, problems with water quality in Ruidosa and Candelaria have also surfaced and may require serious and costly intervention. County Judge Joe Portillo reached out to the Texas Department of Emergency Management to confirm that he was able to broaden the declaration to include more than one community — the revised declaration is intended to prevent “hardship and suffering throughout the unincorporated communities of Presidio County.”
Portillo explained that the declaration of emergency was “preventative” — if needed, it provided the proper framework for the county to ask for help from the state. Temporary solutions to water quality problems could involve trucking or tractoring in mobile tanks of potable water, but commissioners agreed that isn’t a feasible long-term fix, especially if expensive new filtration and pumping systems needed to be installed in the county’s most remote communities.
County Emergency Management Coordinator Gary Mitschke explained that the declaration isn’t an automatic trigger to receive services from the state and that the county would retain control. “The [Texas Department of Emergency Management] is simply a support,” he said. “As long as we say we’re in charge, we’re in charge.”
Precinct 4 Commissioner David Beebe expressed concern that the declaration might still be too broad, even with an initial green light from the state. Portillo said he was confident in their counsel — and that he would ensure that the county exhausted all its options for dealing with the problem independently before asking for outside assistance. “This is a unique animal,” he said.