Flooding prevention in Hidalgo County is the goal of the North Main Drain Expansion Project.

The drain is where water from the other major drains in Hidalgo County end up in, and a proposed $33 million project would widen about 15 miles of the drain to hold double what it currently can. 

Hidalgo County Drainage District #1 General Manager Raul Sesin said the project is vital.

“This area, all the drainage improvements end up here so you can see all the area that we're serving — McAllen, Alton, part of Mission, you got Edinburg, part of Pharr — so there's a lot of improvements that this channel is doing,” Sesin said.

The project recently got the attention of the Texas Water Development Board, which ranked the project #8 out of 110 projects across the state in the first ever statewide flood plan. It's now considered a priority project for state funding. 

“It's important to be in that top number so you can be guaranteed that funding,” Sesin said. “The way we see it, it's an opportunity for us to continue developing these projects to get us ready for when we are in a wet period."

Before the finalized rankings come out, the water development board and Hidalgo County want residents to provide public comments.

The public comment period started on Thursday, Feb. 6, and ends on Monday, March 10. Click here to comment on the project. 

The project is budgeted at $33 million, and Sesin expects about $12 million to come from the state.

The rest will be funded through a 2023 bond election. 

Watch the video above for the full story.