City leaders in McAllen are working to find alternative water sources underground.

The city hired an engineer to work on designing a desalination facility and six wells. The entire project could cost the city up to $180 million.

Officials are working on applying for grants and loans from the Texas Water Development Board to fund the project.

Officials say finding water underground from the Gulf Coast aquifer is needed now more than ever.

"We want to leverage groundwater in lieu of surface water and not be so dependent on the Rio Grande," McAllen Public Utility General Manager Mark Vega said. "There is a very plentiful supply of brackish groundwater in the aquifer below Hidalgo County and the Rio Grande Valley, and that is what we want to tap into."

McAllen uses about 24 million gallons of water a day from the Rio Grande. The Northern Water Treatment Plant will generate 8 million gallons of groundwater.

The project will take about four years.