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<br />002J06 <br /> <br />Water Resources in the Alamar River Ecosystem: <br />Issues and Opportunities <br /> <br />With contributions by SDSU students Ralph Stricker, Jason Castaiieda, Dillon Gibbons, <br />and Heather Davis and by UABC students Adiel Quiiionez Garcia, Alena Rosales Rojas, <br />Daniel Garcia de Leon Munguia, and Sonia Martinez Espinoza <br /> <br />Introduction <br /> <br />In Baja California, the climate is arid resulting in scarce water resources for large <br />scale economic and urban development. However, e:ven though water resources are <br />limited, one finds a rapidly expanding urban population and a commerciaVindustrial <br />economy in Tijuana. Annually, depending on the amount of surface water captured by the <br />Rodriguez Reservoir and available groundwater supplies, Tijuana imports up to 94 <br />percent of its water from the Colorado River (COBRO 1997). Tijuana's growing <br />population and economy not only place large demands on water resources, but also <br />threaten local drinking water quality with pollutants from agricultural, urban, and <br />industrial activities. This combination of explosive population growth, scant water <br />resources, and increased pollutant generation will further deplete Baja California's <br />already overburdened water resources. <br /> <br />Tijuana's water supply outlook is grim. By 2004, Tijuana may start rationing water <br />for its growing population (Gonzalez-Delgado 1999). One solution is to increase water <br />imports from the Colorado River, as San Diego also is proposing. While more imported <br />water may be inevitable, its cost in terms of capital investment and energy consumption <br />to pump water over the mountains is enormous. This report recommends a cost-effective <br />measure to maximize local potable water resources within Tijuana by protecting <br />groundwater aquifers beneath the city's urban rivers. To protect the Alamar River's <br />surface and groundwater quantity and quality, the city should first coordinate watershed- <br />based management of the Alamar and Tecate rivers upstream and the Tijuana River <br />downstream. Second, within the river corridor itselt~ a multipurpose river park plan is <br />suggested. <br /> <br />The Water Resources Management Approach: Watershed <br /> <br />A watershed captures precipitation from rain and snow that is formed at the mountain <br />peaks. When sufficient precipitation falls to the earth's surface, it produces surface and <br />groundwater flows. These flows form small streams that join together to create a main <br />channel that discharges into a lake, lagoon, or the ocean. The catchment basin that <br />encompasses the stream and groundwater flows is Imown as a watershed, or an <br />orographic basin, because the surrounding hills form an area much like the shape of an <br />inverted umbrella (Zuiiiga 1998). In Baja California, the Colorado River Basin represents <br />a large watershed or river basin. However, most watersheds in Baja California are small <br />coastal watersheds that discharge into the sea. In this paper, the watershed is defined as a <br />hydrogeographic unit that includes the precipitation catchment area, the surface water <br />drainage network, groundwater basins, and other elements, such as vegetation, soil, <br /> <br />7 <br />