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• Board Meeting Date: 9/16/2008
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River/Mexico Treaty Update on Shortage Sharing and Potential Augmentation of Supplies
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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U.S. and 1~Jexica Agree tt~ Discuss Joint Cooperative Actions
Related to the Colorado River
~s resit of hghwiet~ai b~lataral ansultat~ansg U.~. and IVlexlcan federal authar~t~as have agreed to d~sct~ss
~6uC~"lb~r of assuas of mutual concern to bath nat,an related to the alarada lever.
Thy' le~artment of ~~ Inter~ar, thraugh the Bureau of l~eclarnat~an, ~ res~an~ble far the dar~MMstf
managarr~ent of ~~ elarada l~ivar, the waters of which are shared b seven U.. basin ~~ and lle~ica.
llaica's Calarada liver allacatian is avarnad the g~~ Treaty l~eiating to the Utiliatian of the Waters of
the l~aiarada artd Ti}uana livers and of the lie Grande, which is administered b the Ir~ternatiar°~al Boundary
and V~lter ~ar~rnissian ~lllt~)s
The U.B. and ~axican authorities have agreed that caaperati~re; ir~navativa and holistic rneasuras should be
considered to ensure that the ~aiarada liver is able to continue to meet anvirar~m~antal, agricultural and urban
demands of bath nations.
The Mexican authorities stressed the irnpartance of ensuring that the needs of all stakeholders in the lower
Martian of the ~alorada liver era understood and considered ~~ leaders of bath nations.
The U.~~ authorities acknowledged the grov~ing national and international focus an the ~alarada Ri~rer a
result of the angair~g historic drought in the basin. The U.~. authorities else Hated recent innovative
agreements among the seven U.B. states that rely on the Colorado diver,
The authorities frarr~ bath nations expressed their interest in order to reinforce bilateral cooperation regarding
issues related to ~ laver portion of ~~ Colorado liven acknowledged areas of concern regarding wear
cansarvation actions, while highlighting arrtergin innovative and comprehensive concepts that could be used tc~
benefit avatar users in both the U.B. and lexica.
In that regard, authorities Pram bath nations agreed that the IBV~f, a treaty-based bilateral argani~atian with
aver a eentury of successful callabaration, should be utili~ad to expedite discussions in coming weeks to further
Colorado liver caaparatiar~. ~mang the issues expected to be addressed are:
continued needs of bath nations far water far urban, agricultural and enviranrnental purposes, the study of
the hydrological sstarn and potential impacts of climate change, incl~adir~g the effects of the ongoing historic
Colorado diver draught;
an~riranrnantal priorities, inclradir~g Colorado liver Ualta habitat protection and enanaarnent;
rpportcanitias far water conser~~atiar~, storage and supply augmentatian9 such as seawater desalination and
~eusey stratage aimed £a ease variations in the Colorado liver syste~;
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