WSP09503

• File Number: 8278.400
• Description: Title I - Mexican Treaty
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 5/10/1962
• Author: CWCB - D. Hamburg
• Title: Mexican Water Treaty Negotiations Pertaining to the Colorado River
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

.'

SENATOR MILLIKIN.
so far as pure water is
have among ourselves?

Could we give Mexico a better claim,
concerned, or fresh water, than we

MR. ACHESON. No, sir.

SENATOR MILLIKIN. Is there any international principle
that compels that method of doing business?

MR. ACHESON. No, sir.

SENATOR MILLIKIN. Now, return flows, to which the
Senator from California refers, as they reach the Mexican
border, are those flows which have returned from the last
user of those waters in Arizona or in California. They
are as saline as they are due to their consumptive use as
visioned by the compact. We do not add to their salinity
deliberately, nor have we any way of taking the salinity
out of the water except possibly by use of very elaborate
chemical works, or something of that kind. Is there any
international principle that would require that we do
anything of that kind?

,
MR. ACHESON. Not to my knowledge.

SENATOR MILLIKIN. In other words, Mexico must take
the water as it arrives at the border; is that correct?

MR. ACHESON. That is correct.

SENATOR MILLIKIN. The salinity of that water arises
from geography and consumptive use rather than from the
treaty; is not that correct?

MR. ACHESON. That is correct."

P. 1777 to top of P. 1778:

''r\ "MR. ACHESON. What I tried to make clear was that
under the treaty, as stated very clearly in the treaty,
the water which is allocated to Mexico is from any and
all sources in the river, that the amount of 1,500,000
acre-feet is the limit of Mexico's demands on the river
for any purpose whatever, and that such waters as Mexico
gets shall be made up from the waters of such river, what-
ever their origin. My view is that the l,500.000 acre-feet

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