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<br />. <br /> <br />B. Selected Legislation Pertaining to Salinity <br />Control <br />It was actually a Lower Basin project that <br />first made salinity a major issue. In the 1930s and <br />1940s salt buildup in the groundwater of southern Arizona <br />had led to a reduction of farming in the Well ton-Mohawk <br />area. This prompted the importation of cleaner Colorado <br />River water in the mid-1950s under a federal project. <br />Importation of this new water, however, resulted in a <br />rise in the salt-laden groundwater table which prompted <br />an additional federal project to pump the saline ground- <br />water and discharge it out of the area to the Colorado <br />River just north of the Mexican border. The effects of <br />this salt loading were exacerbated when the filling of <br />Lake Powell behind the Glen Canyon Dam reduced flows in <br />the Lower Basin. By 1961 saline concentrations of about <br />6000 mg/L in the drainage water of this area caused the <br />Colorado River water flowing to Mexico to reach 2700 <br />mg/L. Mexico claimed this water was ruining its crops <br />and also that the Mexico Treaty was being violated. <br />Al though the Mexican Treaty contains no express <br />water-quality guarantee, after extended negotiations and <br />two interim agreements, on August 30, 1973, the United <br />States and Mexico reached an accord. Under Minute 242 <br /> <br />-28- <br />