By Your Valley Voice

April 2, 2014

A powerful Texas legislative committee that will take a close look at what Texas is doing to convert more seawater and brackish water into new reservoirs of drinking water will include Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, who on Friday, March 28, was appointed to the Joint Interim Committee to Study Water Desalination.

The House District 40 lawmaker, who noted the importance of water for economic development statewide, is featured here on March 28 with business leaders from South Texas during an event hosted in Edinburg by the Women’s Business Center. “Water is life. The benefits of protecting andincreasing safe and reliable sources of drinking water for Texas are numerous and all-encompassing,” Canales said. “But there are also tremendous economic interests at stake by coming up with ways to convert brackish groundwater, of which Texas has an abundance, into water that can be used for everything from drinking to irrigation to energy production.” His selection, made by Speaker of the House Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, follows an earlier appointment by another member of the legislative leadership – House Energy Resources Committee Chairman Jim Keffer, R-Eastland – who on Thursday, January 16, included Canales on the House Subcommittee on Seismic Activity. That subcommittee will be studying whether there are connections between seismic activity in Texasand natural gas production. In addition to Canales, Rep. Ryan Guillén, D-Rio Grande City, Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr., D-Brownsville are serving on the 10-member Joint Interim Committee to Study Water Desalination. From left are: Giselle Mascarenhas Villarreal, Public Relations Specialist with Indigo PR and Co-host of the Edge with the Women's Business Center; Sarah Hammond, President of Atlas Electric & Air Conditioning and President & CEO of the Southwest Community Investment Corporation and Co-Host of the Edge with the Women's Business Center; María “Charo” Mann, Executive Director for the Women’s Business Center and Host of the Edge for the Women's Business Center; Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg; Andrew Yoo, President of BPS Systems; and Oriol Zertuche, President of Codesm Marketing.