By Juan Montoya
Well, it's raining again and that means that residents of the oxymoron-named Laguna Seca will be up to their doorstep in flood waters.
To begin with, there is nothing dry about a laguna. But it's a fancy name for a swindle.
That colonia, in the middle of a flood zone, floods every time a large dog pees in the vicinity and should have never been built. But since it was past the three-mile marker in the City of Brownsville Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction, the Cameron County Subdivision rules at the time allowed for the subdivision if it provided retaining ponds. The rules allowed for colonias like Laguna Seca with no sidewalks, no curb and gutter, and no lighting in that area of the ETJ.
When that exception to the Texas Model Rules in Cameron County was passed it was known as the Cardenas Development Welfare Act.
Like the name Laguna Seca, retention ponds is a misnomer. Lakes would be more like it (That's one of the two in the colonia)
We remember when Rene Cardenas, addressing the city commission on ethics, was questioning the commitment of city public officials to act with integrity and righteousness.
La zorra, it is said, no se mira la cola.
It left a few of us wondering why he didn't demand that from members of his own family. So we dug into our files and came up with the Cardenas-engineered Laguna Seca colonia development that has resulted in the county using public resources to address the mess created by his brother Ricky. The colonia is built on a flood zone and that's exactly what residents endure after a moderate rainfall.
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Cameron County Precinct 2 crews have been pumping water all week after the recent storms when the development turns it into a very wet lake. Officially, the subdivision is recorded with the county as the Hacienda Del Norte Subdivision. In fact, the subdivision floods just about every time there's a heavy downpour.
And the developer, who installed a permanent tractor with a pump for that very purpose back in the 1990s, has now washed his hands of the whole messy affair leaving the residents to fend off on their own. To their surprise, the residents – all low-income Hispanics –found out that they had signed on to become part of a Homeowners' Association responsible for manning the pumps to draw away the runoff.
Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Alex Dominguez, who never imagined he'd be involved doing the work of a drainage district, for the past four years has had his hands full answering the complaints of the irate property owners who bought their lots from Quinta-Anita Inc.
The president of Quinta-Anita is Rick Cardenas. According to the records on file, the original owners of Quinta-Anita were Cardenas and the late Raul Tijerina.
"Some of them didn't even know they had deeds," Dominguez said. "The county is really not responsible for pumping water from their lots. But we are trying to help them out as much as we can."
The problems began soon after the subdivision was filed with the county.
The subdivision is in the City of Brownsville's Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and there is no public sanitary sewer service available. Accordingly, on-site sanitary systems (septic tanks) are used by the residents.
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Half of the subdivision is located in Flood Zone AO. According to FEMA guidelines, "Some Zone AO have been designated in areas with high flood velocities such as alluvial fans and washes. Communities are encouraged to adopt more restrictive requirements for these areas."
When the subdivision plat was submitted to the county in the early 1990s, it included a large lot to be used as a retention pond. The deeds sold to residents state that they were to form a home owners' association with lien-assessing authority to maintain the pond.
Some residents have told Dominguez and his assistants that they didn't even know the covenant existed. With lots selling between $17,000 to $24,000, it is doubtful that many would even understand what the covenant was.
"Some didn't even know that that meant," he said. "They didn't know they were supposed to maintain the pond."
When the flooding began way back when, the county asked Cardenas about maintenance of the pump he had provided for the pond and on April 1996, he wrote the county engineer "Please be advised that a homeowners association (is responsible) for the maintenance of s service pump to be used in the detention pond located in Section II of the (subdivision)."
Since the site is more than two miles into the city's ETJ, residents soon faced the daunting task of getting rid of flood waters that often rose to house level.
That pump, however, proved to be too little to remove the standing water that literally created a lake. The problem was compounded with the health hazard created when on-site sewer systems (septic tanks) overflowed.
This week Dominguez and the county crews have spent the better part of three days with the Gator (pump) working 24 hours. They used two 2,000 gallon tanker trucks from Pct. 2 Public Works.
Former Cameron County Pct. 2 commissioner John Wood remembers the subdivision well. He said that the flooding has been chronic and that the pump at the subdivision often broke down and couldn't handle the volume of water that flooded it periodically.
"The developer basically washed his hands of the problem and didn't want anything to do with it," he said.
To add to the problem, the landowners adjacent to the subdivision at first allowed the residents to pump the water into their fields, but with the potential contamination from the septic and other detritus, they were no longer willing to continue the practice.
Additionally, the residents didn't help themselves, often discarding trash, tires, and tree trimmings into the bar ditches impeding the water flow.
"They're their own worst enemies sometimes," said a county supervisor.
Since the subdivision is located outside of any drainage district, the water has to be carried in
pipes and through bar ditches to the nearest irrigation ditch.
With hurricanes threatening the Texas coast, the problems associated with flooding and health hazards from overflowing septic tanks is not going to go away. The way the city is growing, it may not be long before annexation and may require a huge outlay to bring it up to city specifications.
And with Cardenas basically saying it is the residents' baby, and with no easy solution in sight, it is unlikely that Dominguez, the current tenant at the Pct. 2 helm, has heard the last of it. Neither will incoming Pct. 2 commissioner Joey Lopez.
As far as Pct. 2 Supervisor Zeke Silva is concerned, pointing fingers will not solve anything.
"We've pumped with Gators from Monday up to Wednesday," he said. "Yesterday (Thursday) and today we have been passing out sand bags. We did it as a courtesy. I’m monitoring this daily. I want to make sure people are taken care of, regardless of who dropped the ball."
Well, it's raining again and that means that residents of the oxymoron-named Laguna Seca will be up to their doorstep in flood waters.
To begin with, there is nothing dry about a laguna. But it's a fancy name for a swindle.
That colonia, in the middle of a flood zone, floods every time a large dog pees in the vicinity and should have never been built. But since it was past the three-mile marker in the City of Brownsville Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction, the Cameron County Subdivision rules at the time allowed for the subdivision if it provided retaining ponds. The rules allowed for colonias like Laguna Seca with no sidewalks, no curb and gutter, and no lighting in that area of the ETJ.

Like the name Laguna Seca, retention ponds is a misnomer. Lakes would be more like it (That's one of the two in the colonia)
We remember when Rene Cardenas, addressing the city commission on ethics, was questioning the commitment of city public officials to act with integrity and righteousness.
La zorra, it is said, no se mira la cola.
It left a few of us wondering why he didn't demand that from members of his own family. So we dug into our files and came up with the Cardenas-engineered Laguna Seca colonia development that has resulted in the county using public resources to address the mess created by his brother Ricky. The colonia is built on a flood zone and that's exactly what residents endure after a moderate rainfall.

Cameron County Precinct 2 crews have been pumping water all week after the recent storms when the development turns it into a very wet lake. Officially, the subdivision is recorded with the county as the Hacienda Del Norte Subdivision. In fact, the subdivision floods just about every time there's a heavy downpour.
And the developer, who installed a permanent tractor with a pump for that very purpose back in the 1990s, has now washed his hands of the whole messy affair leaving the residents to fend off on their own. To their surprise, the residents – all low-income Hispanics –found out that they had signed on to become part of a Homeowners' Association responsible for manning the pumps to draw away the runoff.
Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Alex Dominguez, who never imagined he'd be involved doing the work of a drainage district, for the past four years has had his hands full answering the complaints of the irate property owners who bought their lots from Quinta-Anita Inc.

"Some of them didn't even know they had deeds," Dominguez said. "The county is really not responsible for pumping water from their lots. But we are trying to help them out as much as we can."
The problems began soon after the subdivision was filed with the county.
The subdivision is in the City of Brownsville's Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and there is no public sanitary sewer service available. Accordingly, on-site sanitary systems (septic tanks) are used by the residents.

Half of the subdivision is located in Flood Zone AO. According to FEMA guidelines, "Some Zone AO have been designated in areas with high flood velocities such as alluvial fans and washes. Communities are encouraged to adopt more restrictive requirements for these areas."
When the subdivision plat was submitted to the county in the early 1990s, it included a large lot to be used as a retention pond. The deeds sold to residents state that they were to form a home owners' association with lien-assessing authority to maintain the pond.
Some residents have told Dominguez and his assistants that they didn't even know the covenant existed. With lots selling between $17,000 to $24,000, it is doubtful that many would even understand what the covenant was.
"Some didn't even know that that meant," he said. "They didn't know they were supposed to maintain the pond."

Since the site is more than two miles into the city's ETJ, residents soon faced the daunting task of getting rid of flood waters that often rose to house level.
That pump, however, proved to be too little to remove the standing water that literally created a lake. The problem was compounded with the health hazard created when on-site sewer systems (septic tanks) overflowed.
This week Dominguez and the county crews have spent the better part of three days with the Gator (pump) working 24 hours. They used two 2,000 gallon tanker trucks from Pct. 2 Public Works.
Former Cameron County Pct. 2 commissioner John Wood remembers the subdivision well. He said that the flooding has been chronic and that the pump at the subdivision often broke down and couldn't handle the volume of water that flooded it periodically.
"The developer basically washed his hands of the problem and didn't want anything to do with it," he said.
To add to the problem, the landowners adjacent to the subdivision at first allowed the residents to pump the water into their fields, but with the potential contamination from the septic and other detritus, they were no longer willing to continue the practice.
Additionally, the residents didn't help themselves, often discarding trash, tires, and tree trimmings into the bar ditches impeding the water flow.
"They're their own worst enemies sometimes," said a county supervisor.
Since the subdivision is located outside of any drainage district, the water has to be carried in
pipes and through bar ditches to the nearest irrigation ditch.
With hurricanes threatening the Texas coast, the problems associated with flooding and health hazards from overflowing septic tanks is not going to go away. The way the city is growing, it may not be long before annexation and may require a huge outlay to bring it up to city specifications.
And with Cardenas basically saying it is the residents' baby, and with no easy solution in sight, it is unlikely that Dominguez, the current tenant at the Pct. 2 helm, has heard the last of it. Neither will incoming Pct. 2 commissioner Joey Lopez.
As far as Pct. 2 Supervisor Zeke Silva is concerned, pointing fingers will not solve anything.
"We've pumped with Gators from Monday up to Wednesday," he said. "Yesterday (Thursday) and today we have been passing out sand bags. We did it as a courtesy. I’m monitoring this daily. I want to make sure people are taken care of, regardless of who dropped the ball."