RGBI Team Receives Partnership Award
By Danielle Superscinski
The Rio Grande Basin Initiative (RGBI) team received the Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for Industry-Agency-University-Association Partnership Jan. 10, at the 2006 Texas A&M Agriculture’s Awards Convocation.
Dr. Elsa Murano, Texas A&M University System vice chancellor and dean of agriculture and life sciences, presented the partnership award to the RGBI team for working with numerous individuals, groups, organizations and agencies to reach the goals and objectives originally set forth for the project. Texas and New Mexico’s Agricultural Experiment Stations and Cooperative Extension work hand in hand with farmers, citizens and local governments. Partners include irrigation districts, cities and counties, USDA-NRCS, USBOR, Regional Water Planning Groups, Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Water Development Board, Commodity Organizations, North American Development Bank, Border Environmental Conservation Commission, selected consultants, International Boundary and Water Commission, and the Lower Rio Grande Development Council.
Primary partners chosen to represent this team include: Edmund Archuleta, El Paso Water Utilities; Dr. B.L. Harris, Texas Water Resources Institute associate director in College Station; Sonny Hinojosa, Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 general manager; Michael Irlbeck, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation special projects director in Austin; Dr. Allan Jones, Texas Water Resources Institute director in College Station; and Craig Runyan, New Mexico State Cooperative Extension.
These team members were selected as primary representatives from the numerous partners and approximately 160 participants of the Rio Grande Basin Initiative as a whole. Archuleta and Hinojosa represented the cities, municipalities and irrigation district managers along the Rio Grande. Irlbeck not only represented the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, but all agencies that partner with the Rio Grande Basin Initiative. Runyan accepted the award on behalf of the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service participants. Harris and Jones represented Texas A&M Agriculture’s Texas Cooperative Extension and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station participants, as well as working with Runyan as the project administrators.
Together all of these groups and participants work towards the common goal of efficient irrigation for water conservation in the Rio Grande Basin.
