Mayors from the cities of McAllen, Edinburg, Pharr, and Mission gathered Wednesday to talk about a plan to potentially resolve drainage issues in the county.

Pharr Mayor Ambrosio Hernandez says that they hope to create a unified drainage plan that is consistent across each city and enforces the rules and regulations that prevent flooding.

“Our plan is to make sure everything is united as far as the variances, as far as the infrastructure, so it drains into the ultimate system and that’s the county system,” Hernandez said.

Fixing drainage issues can cost each city up to an estimated $100 million a year, according to Mission Mayor Dr. O’Cana. However, Hernandez says that they feel it is time to do whatever needs to be done to properly fix the flooding problems.

“Whether it’s grants, bonds, whatever you want to call it, I think the people in our county, in our respective cities, they’re ready for a solution and they really want to see it done once and for all,” Hernandez said.

While they have already broken ground on some plans like drainage expansion, Edinburg Mayor Richard Molina says that this effort involves a series of major projects that will take time. But he believes, together, they can speed up the process.

“The more unity there is, the quicker that it will work,” Molina said. “So, we want the other mayors to make sure the other eighteen mayors that are not present, they need to be on board with us, and of course I’m going to reiterate, we cannot do this without the county.”