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<br />Oct-OS-2001 12:28pm From-Colorado River Commission U U 3248 7024862697 <br />- . <br /> <br />T-27S P,Q07/018 F-652 <br /> <br />BINATIONAL DECLARATION - THE COLORADO RIVER DELTA <br /> <br />A. Whereas the Mexican and United Stares governments, through Minute 306 of the mWClCILA, <br />have agreed to: <br /> <br />"esmblish a framework for cooperation by the United States and Mexico through the <br />development of joint StUdies that include possible approaches to ensure use of water for <br />ecological purposes in this reach [of the Colorado River] and fonnuIation of recommendations <br />for cooperative projects, based on the principle of an equitable disnibution of resomces." <br /> <br />B. Whereas management over recent decades in both Mexico and the United States has devastated <br />the Colorado River's ecosystems; <br /> <br />C. Whereas the histOrical record of Colorado River flow has been estimated at approximately 15 <br />million acI'e- feet per year, and in recent years the :flow below the last major diversion at Morelos <br />Dam is often only 0.2% of the river's estimated historical ammal flow; <br /> <br />D. Whereas the 1944 Colorado River Treaty grantS to Mexico the annual right to only' i.5 million <br />acre- feet of Colorndo River water (plus 0.2 million acre- feet under certain conditions) while the <br />Colorado River Compact grants to the United States the annual right to up to 16 million acre- feet; <br /> <br />E. Whereas the Colorado River delta encompasses several impommt ecosystemS in need of <br />conservation attention, including the Colorado River riparian corridor south of Morel os Dam, the <br />open water wetlands of the Cienega de Santa Clara, the Colorado River estuary at the northern <br />Gulf of California, and numerous brackish wetlands throughout the historic delta; <br /> <br />F. Whereas the Colorado River riparian conidor below MoreIos Dam has demonstrated marked <br />regeneration and resilience in response to recent flood releases 'from Hoover Dam and the Gila <br />River, and now contains more native'riparian habitat than the reach of the river from Hoover Dam to <br />Morelos Dam; <br /> <br />G. Whereas preliminary estimates indicate that the Colorado River corridor below Morelos Dam must <br />continue to receive at minimmn an instream flow of 32,000 acre- feet annually in addition to periodic <br />floods of 260,000 acre- feet on average every four years in order to sustain endangered species <br />such as the South~estem willow flycatcher, in addition to a rich diversity and abundance of other <br />terrestrial and aquatic species; <br />