RGV parks battle different water woes

Two state parks have two problems and one common denominator — water.

For Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, there’s too much water. At Resaca de la Palma State Park in Brownsville, there’s not enough water.

Despite only being 30 miles apart, their problems couldn’t be more different.

Estero Llano Grande

At Estero Llano Grande, National Resource Specialist Kyle O’Haver estimates about a quarter of the park has been flooded and is inaccessible to visitors.

Estero Llano Grande is just one of numerous victims of flooding caused by back-to-back Hurricane Alex and Tropical Depression No. 2 in July.

"At our park, when the floodway filled up, the county had to shut drainage ditches in our area," O’Haver said. "All the storm water that came through Weslaco started building up in our park. When the floodway level goes down, we may be able to open the drains."

In the meantime, some of the park did flood and the trail to Alligator Lake and Grebe Marsh was submerged and the two bodies of water became one.

Fortunately for the park, the flooding came in late summer, typically the offseason for visitation.

O’Haver said he expects the park to completely recover.

"I don’t see any long-term effects," he noted. "Plants and animals are used to it and this should not drastically change the park because this is what a wetlands does."

O’Haver said flooding has not been blamed for any animal deaths, though some trees will likely die.

"As for ground-nesting birds, at most they would have lost their first nest, moved to a different part of the park, and re-nested," O’Haver said.

"As for the mammals, we see them moving around and holing up in different areas."

O’Haver admits there is some concern about chemicals and waste in the floodwaters.

"Most of the floodwater is runoff from crops and cities and it will have a certain amount of contaminants. Exactly what contaminants are in the water, there could be a lot of different ones," he said.

"It’s not by any means the cleanest water or will it be the way it was before," he said.

O’Haver said migratory warblers are already showing up at the park and the first ducks, blue-winged teal, are populating the ponds.

When will the park return to normal?

"As soon as the water level lowers in the floodway and we can start moving the water out," O’Haver said.

Resaca de la Palma

Pablo de Yturbe, manager at Resaca de la Palma, said part of the culvert that transverses the tram road has collapsed and repairs are needed. The problem was detected in late 2009.

"Our resaca system is divided into five parts and two of the parts have no water," de Yturbe said.

The observation deck closest to the visitors center now overlooks a dry resaca bed overgrown with weeds.

In better days, that overlook would have produced sightings of pied-billed and least grebes, green and ringed kingfishers, along with great kiskadees and white ibises.

De Yturbe said electric cars now take visitors to parts of the nearly 2,000-acre park that have water.

He said that when park visitation picks up in the cooler months, it would be important that the entire resaca has water.

"Regardless of whether the culvert is fixed or not, we will begin pumping water in November," he said.

De Yturbe is also confident the park will recover.

"We’re just mimicking what the river would naturally do," he said.