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p --r ~, "But no one foresaw the development of the Wellton-Mohawk Project and the highly saline flow from drainage wells that would get into the river. In 1961, when Wellton-Mohawk drainage began entering the river, the water at Morelos Darn, where Mexico diverts to the Mexicali Valley, rose to well over 1500 parts per million salt." The United States will line with concrete the first 50 miles of the Coachella Branch of the All-American Canal to conserve some 130,000 acre-feet of water that now leaks from the canal into the underground. That will allow temporary releases to Mexico of an equivalent amount of water from upstream storage. For the past year, Mexico has been bypassing Wellton-Mohawk drainage water and the U. S. has replaced about 118.000 acre-feet, half the bypassed water, with supplies from storage or wells along the river. Other aspectsof the agreement, of principal concern to Arizona, will be limiting Mexico and the United States to 160,000 acre-feet each year which they can pump from an underground basin near the Arizona-Sonora boundary. The United States will also support Mexico in obtaining loans from international sources to assist farmers of the Mexicali Valley and provide funds for the installation of tile drains. The Mexican govern- ment estimated to Brownell that 75,000 acres of land in the valley have gone out of production because of salty soil and salty water used for irrigation. "You could fill volumes and volumes about the history of Mexico- U.S. relations on water from the river, going right back to the time of negotiations that resulted in the 1944 treaty," Rummonds said. "For many years after construction of Hoover Dam there was a surplus of water flowing into Mexico. "When the supplies became tighter and the United States limited the flow to the treaty terms, the Mexican farmers probably tried to stretch the supply over too much acreage. Without proper leaching, salt con- tinued to build up in the naturally salty soil of the Mexicali Valley." In announcing the signing of the new agreement, Ambassador Brownell said that the quality of water delivered could be improved permanently without adversely affecting any of the planned programs for development of the natural resources in the states. That has not, as yet, alleviated the considerable concern of the Committee of Fourteen, a group with representatives appointed by the -2-