Minute318PressRelease

• Year: 2010
• Title: Salazar, Elvira Announce Water Agreement to Support Response to Mexicali Valley Earthquake
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Author: Department of Interior
• Description: Salazar, Elvira Announce Water Agreement to Support Response to Mexicali Valley Earthquake
• Publications - Doc Type: Press Release

Under Minute 318, Mexico will be able to temporarily defer delivery of a portion of its annual
Colorado River water allotment while repairs are made to the irrigation system in the Mexicali
Valley of Baja California as a result of an April 4, 2010 earthquake. This agreement is founded
on the 1944 Water Treaty between the U.S. and Mexico.
Under the 1944 Water Treaty between the United States and Mexico, Mexico is allotted a
guaranteed quantity of Colorado River Water each year. Absent surplus or extraordinary drought
conditions, Mexico's annual allotment is 1.5 million acre -feet (maf).
Minute 318 allows Mexico to defer delivery of up to 260,000 acre -feet of its annual allotment
through December 31, 2013. Beginning in 2014, Mexico could begin recovery of the amounts of
Colorado River water deferred during the three -year period, subject to the progress of
reconstruction of the Mexican irrigation system and the status of Colorado River reservoirs.
In their meeting today, Secretaries Salazar and Elvira, Commissioner of Reclamation Connor,
Director General of the Mexican National Water Commission Jose Luis Luege Tamargo, and
IBWC Commissioners Drusina and Salmon discussed the need for a comprehensive agreement
on Colorado River water management issues, particularly in light of ongoing drought conditions
and the prospect of continuing declines in reservoir levels.
Secretaries Salazar and Elvira identified the negotiations on a comprehensive agreement as a top
priority for 2011. The leaders said they would direct their representatives to begin negotiations
of the comprehensive water agreement in January, 2011.
Commissioner Connor noted that a comprehensive agreement is of particular importance in light
of ongoing, historic drought in the Colorado River Basin:
• Since 2000, Colorado River basin reservoirs have dropped from nearly full to
approximately 55% of total storage.
• Lake Mead currently stands at 39% of capacity, lower than it has been since it was filling
in the 1930s.
• The last 11 years have been the driest in a century of recorded history, and among the
driest 1% of periods in over 1,000 years.
• Current projections show that if current drought conditions persist, the Lower Basin
(Arizona, California and Nevada) may be subject to the first -ever domestic shortage
declaration on the Colorado River as early as 2012; the likelihood of shortage conditions
by 2014 is approximately 35 %.
To read Secretary Salazar's statement, click here