McAllen sues water district over rate hike

A dispute over the cost of water has landed the Hidalgo County Water Improvement District No. 3 and its president, Othal Brand Jr., in a protracted legal battle with the district’s largest wholesale customer, the city of McAllen. McAllen claims that the district has unfairly and exorbitantly increased the rate the city must pay for the untreated water supplied by the district. Last October, the city filed a 197-page complaint with the Public Utility Commission of Texas appealing the new charges and accusing the water district of “abuse of its monopoly power.”

“The rate charged to (McAllen) by (Hidalgo County Water Improvement District No. 3) for raw water delivery is nearly double the average rate charged to (McAllen) by similarly situated districts and is 8.5 times the rate charged by HCWID to its other customers,” reads the city of McAllen’s complaint, in part. However, the dispute has since become entangled in a morass of red tape in two separate venues — at the Public Utility Commission where the complaint was originally filed, and in the state district court where McAllen filed a lawsuit at the beginning of May. The legal battle is just the latest chapter in a decadeslong series of disputes between McAllen and the district. McAllen gets its water from four different entities: Hidalgo County Irrigation Districts No. 1 and No. 2, the United Irrigation District, and lastly, the Hidalgo County Water Improvement District No. 3. The city pays more than $1.7 million for just under 14,000 acre feet of water per year, regardless of whether District No. 3 delivers the full volume of water to the Boeye Reservoir near La Plaza Mall.