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<br />Table I: Water Use in the Alamar River <br /> <br />Water Use Observed Water Sources <br /> <br />Domestic Surface and groundwater*, Pipas (water <br />trucks) <br />Crop irrigation Surface and groundwater* <br /> <br />Livestock watering Surface and groundwater* <br /> <br />Industrial activities Unknown <br /> <br />Commercial activities Unknown <br /> <br />Groundwater recharge Surface and groundwater* flows (within <br />the river valley and from upstream <br />sources) <br />Riparian habitat (aquatic and terrestrial) Surface and groundwater* <br /> <br />Water purification (wetlands) Surface water* <br /> <br />Wildlife habitat Surface and groundwater* <br /> <br />Waterfowl propagation Surface water* <br /> <br />Noncontact water recreation (hiking, Surface water* <br />fishing, and bird watching) <br />*Indicates source of surface and groundwater is the Alamar River <br /> <br />Follow-up field research is recommended on past, present, and future water uses in <br />this riparian corridor. The research may list potential new uses presented by the river park <br />alternative. As indicated in Table 1, the Alamar River's surface and groundwater <br />resources currently support multiple uses. The proposed river park would protect and <br />even expand these uses. A key criterion to safeguard the present and potential uses is <br />water quality protection. <br /> <br />Water Quality in the Alamar River Corridor <br /> <br />From the watershed perspective, water pollution originates not only from point <br />sources or pipes (such as industrial discharges), but also from multiple, diffuse sources or <br />nonpoint source pollution. The BorderLink research team identified three main sources of <br />water pollution in the Alamar River Corridor: (1) uncontained wastewater discharges, (2) <br />nonpoint source pollution, and (3) pollution from the Tecate River upstream. The <br />following sections discuss these sources of pollution and the results of BorderLink 2000 <br />water quality testing field research. <br /> <br />Tijuana's rapid urban and economic growth has led to increases in the demand for not <br />only water, but also for wastewater services. Border cities and states have little money to <br />spend on water and wastewater projects because the federal government provides <br />inadequate financial resources to municipal or state water districts (Carter 1999). At <br /> <br />12 <br />