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<br />001442 <br /> <br />The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act, 43 <br />U.S.C. ~1571 et .eJill. (1976) ("CRBSCA") was precipitated by <br />Mexican protests over salt levels. By 1961 the salt level of <br />Colorado River water reaching Mexico from the mainstream <br />nearly doubled to 2,700 parts per million as a result of <br />discharges of highly saline underground water pumped by the <br />We~lton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District in southern <br />Arizona near the foot of the Gila.37 Mexico claimed this <br />water was ruining its crops. Although the Mexican Water <br />Treaty does not expressly address water quality, the United <br />States began to ameliorate the problem by diluting the salt <br />with greater amounts of fresh water released from storage and <br />by channeling the Wellton-Mohawk discharges around the <br />Mexican diversion point at the Morelos Dam. Interim agree- <br />ments were entered into with Mexico and further remedial <br />actions undertaken by the United States.38 Then in 1973 the <br />nations signed Minute 242 of the International Boundary and <br />Water Commission,39 which committed the united States to <br />deliver water to Mexico 'from the mainstream containing on the <br />average no more than 115 parts per million of salt more than <br />the salt content of the water used by the Imperial Valley. <br />That standard would generally limit the salt content of the <br />Mexican water to about 1,000 parts per million.40 In order <br />to implement this agreement Congress passed the CRBSCA. <br />The CRBSCA initially authorized four salinity control <br />projects and has been amended to authorize numerous other <br /> <br />-17- <br />