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Water Education Foundation's Colorado River Symposium Sept. 28 -30 in Santa Fe, N.M. Background The border region affected by the Colorado is the area along the California and Arizona borders with Mexico. The region includes urbanized areas such as the Mexicali - Calexico and the San Diego- Tijuana areas, but also major agricultural areas such as the Imperial and Mexicali valleys and important environmental features along the river corridor and its delta at the Gulf of California. The rapidly growing urban areas along the border are spawning regional economies that attract population and new investment. Chris Frahm, an attorney with Hatch & Parent, who represents water agencies and munici- palities, noted that Mexico accounts for $33 billion in trade annually through the San Diego Customs District. The San Diego- Tijuana regional economy is one of the engines driving water decisions, she said, referring to the San Diego County Water Authority's (SDCWA) transfer agreement with Imperial Irrigation District that was part of the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA). San Diego County is expected to increase its water use by 118,000 acre - feet per year by 2020 to keep pace with a projected population increase to 3.8 million people, said Dan Hentschke, SDCWA general counsel. By 2020, Tijuanas population could be the same, with current water use there projected to double to 170,000 acre -feet per year, he said. A similar pattern is emerging about 150 miles east of San Diego, where the Mexican city of Mexicali sprawls along the border south of its much smaller California counterpart, Calexico. Mexicali has grown to an estimated 750,000 people in just a few decades, and will hit 1.2 million by 2020. These border communities are centers of economic growth, but they SALTON SEA CALIFORNIA ALL COACHELLA COLORADO YUMA ARIZONA DESALTING C=alexic� /� •Mexicali �MORELOS ma DAM BAJA CENTRAL CANAL& CALIFORNIA an Luis COL RIVI r LACUNA C SALADA A f , €_< also are straining available water resources that serve municipal and irrigation needs and sustain environ- mental values on both sides of the border. The recent drought in the Colorado River basin is a reminder of how thinly those resources are stretched, and no one knows if the drought has ended yet. Besides the thriving economy outlined by Frahm and others, there is the environment of the Colorado River's riparian corridor and its delta at the Gulf of California. Once a two- million- acre wetland ecosystem, the river's delta region has shrunk to about 150,000 acres because much of the water that formerly flowed into it is diverted upstream in the U.S. and Mexico. However, the remaining wetlands still hold significant ecological value, providing habitat for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds. With the development of the Colorado River's water and power resources has come an influx of popula- WELTON- MOHAWK BYPASS DRAIN SONORA EGA DE GULF OF CALIFORNIA r` 4,f tion and agriculture. Intensively farmed areas of southeastern California divert almost 4 million acre -feet of water per year from the river to grow an astonish- ing variety of crops. South of the border, Mexicali farmers also use water from the river and groundwater to cultivate crops. Efforts to restore the lower Colorado River in the U.S. and its delta habitat in Mexico have taken decades to gain momentum, but activity has quickened recently on both sides of the border. State and federal agencies in the U.S. have recently signed off on a 50 -year Multi Species Conservation Program (MSCP) to restore more than 8,100 acres of riparian habitat between Hoover Dam and the U.S.- Mexico border. The ambitious plan aims to protect six endangered species, restore cottonwood and willow habitat, while at the same time ensuring certainty of existing river water and power operations (see the Summer 2005 issue of River Report). If anything, figuring out what to do about the delta region in Mexico may be WINTER 2005 -2006 • RIVER REPORT • COLORADO RIVER PROJECT • 5