Sul Ross' Rio Grande Research Center awarded $1.434 million for water study

ALPINE The Rio Grande Research Center at the School of Arts & Sciences at Sul Ross State University has been awarded $1.434 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund biophysical research in the Rio Grande Basin.

The award is part of $6.5 million in funding secured for important agricultural research in the 23rd Congressional District for fiscal year 2010.

U.S. Congressman Ciro D. Rodriguez  made the recent announcement.

“Ranching and agriculture are the backbone of our Texas heritage,” said Rodriguez, whose district stretches from San Antonio to El Paso and down to the U.S.-Mexico border. “I’m glad that this funding is now firmly in place to ensure the continuation of important research to protect our agricultural heritage, improve the safety of our food
and help us use our resources more wisely.”

One of the programs funded by congress is the Sustainable Agricultural Water Conservation Project. Coordinated through Sul Ross’ Rio Grande Research Center in Alpine, the project supports a broad array of research and projects focused on sustainable use of Rio Grande basin resources. Researchers from Sul Ross, Lamar University, Texas State University San Marcos and Sam Houston State as well as some non-governmental agencies are involved.

The project began in 2004, partly in response to the fact that the once-mighty Rio Grande/Rio Bravo actually ceased flowing to the Gulf of Mexico for a period of time.

Research by the University of Texas (Austin and UT PanAM) has also been funded through the project. The goal is to create a basin-wide management plan for the Rio Grande region.

“Interactions within this watershed system are not well understood. Considering the many changes taking place in the region, support for this research from congress is timely,” said Project Director Kevin Urbanczyk.

To date, the Rio Grande Research Center has coordinated the distribution of more than $7.942 million toward projects focused on resources within the 335,000-square mile physical boundary of the Rio Grande Watershed.

The Rio Grande is 1,896 miles long, the fifth longest river in the U.S., draining more than 40,000 square miles in Texas alone, an area larger than the state of South Carolina.

Alpine is very near the geographic center of the Rio Grande watershed basin, making Sul Ross the ideal location for coordinating research conducted in remote areas of the basin.