WSP10281

• File Number: 8278.300
• Description: Title I - Mexican Treaty
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 9/1/1991
• Author: Anne DeMarsay CRBSCF
• Title: The Brownell Task Force and the Mexican Salinity Problem - A Narrative Chronology of Events
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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Notes

1. Costs are given in current dollars. According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation,
desalted product water from the Yuma plant wiII cost $728 per acre-foot (October 1991
dollars); the cost quoted for the blended water is the author's estimate.

2. The negotiations leading to this compromise are summarized in Myron B. Holburt's
article, "International Problems of the Colorado River," NaJural Resources Journal, 15
(January 1975), pp. 11-13.

3. For a brief, authoritative history of the dispute, see former Ambassador Friedkin's essay,
"The International Problem with Mexico over the Salinity of the Lower Colorado River,"
in WaJer and the American West; Essays in Horwr of Raphael J. Moses, ed. David H.
Getches.

4. See Myron B. Holburt, op. dt., pp. 13-14 for a synopsis of the legislative history of
treaty ratification.

5. Several former members of the Committee of Fourteen credit Steve Reynolds, New
Mexico's long-time representative to the Committee, with introducing the concept of
equivalent salt balance; but his handwritten note by the paragraph in the draft report on
the origin of the concept reads: "Raymond Hill-long before '60!"

6. Steve Reynolds's notes on the draft report indicate that he believed gravity drains rather
than pumps should have been installed at WelllOn-Mohawk, and that the project would
never reach salt balance as long as drainage was pumped. According to Bureau of
Reclamation staff, when return flows are reduced to 108,000 acre-feet as called for in
the Title I Definite Plan Report, Wellton-Mohawk will achieve approximate salt balance
within four or five years.

7. Myron B. Holburt, "The Mexican Water Treaty and Its Relationship to Colorado Water
Supplies." Paper presented to the California Water Resources Association, Coronado,
California, August ll, 1972, p. 7.

8. Ibid., p. 9.

9. Office of the Federal Register, "Visit of President Echeverria of Mexico," Weekly
Compilation of Presidential Documents, 8 (June 19, 1972), p. 1058.

10. Steve Reynolds's notes say: "No!" He apparently believed the water substituted for
bypassed Wellton-Mohawk drainage should have been Arizona's responsibility.

11. Friedkin, op. dt., p. 48.

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