River Report Winter 2005-2006

• Year: 2006
• Title: River Report
• Author: Colorado River Project
• Description: A Project of the Water Education Foundation; Winter 2005-2006
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

the table as individuals, not as represen-
tatives of interest groups out to satisfy
narrow, parochial objectives. Over
months of discussions, what he called
"the discourse of entitlement" gave way
to talks aimed at finding solutions that
would reduce or eliminate the risk of
shortages feared by U.S. water users
while also ensuring the maintenance or
enhancement of environmental values
in the Cienega. Any solution had to
comply with binational water quality
requirements and preserve existing rights
to use Colorado River water.
"We all have a stake in producing
enough water for people, and we also
have a stake in making sure that the
Cienega survives," said David S. "Sid"
Wilson, general manager of the CAP,
who convened the workgroup.
The workgroup's recommendations
included a set of short -term measures
such as correcting deficiencies in the
YDP design, establishing a water
shortage contingency fund to mitigate
any water supply disruptions, imple-
menting a monitoring program in the
Cienega to determine the relationship
between water quantity and quality and
maintenance of a healthy ecosystem and
implementing a pilot, voluntary
program of consumptive use reduction
and forbearance to reduce the potential
for shortages.
A companion set of long -term
measures included the following:
• Limit the volume of bypass flow
from Wellton- Mohawk through
advanced water conservation
practices;
• Continue short -term measures such
as the shortage alleviation contin-
gency fund and the voluntary,
consumptive use and forbearance
program;
• Continue water inflow to the
Cienega at quantity and quality
levels necessary to maintain, and
where possible, improve its value
as an ecological preserve; and
• Treat excess Yuma -area groundwater
at YDP for use as M &I supply.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's
Lower Colorado
Region held public how we mv
meetings in October
in Phoenix and Yuma Malisso
to collect information
on potential methods
to recover or replace agricultural return
flows from Wellton- Mohawk. Operation
of the YDP is one option being consid-
ered, but Reclamation has set no
timetable for making a decision or
issuing a proposal.
Robert Snow, an attorney for the
Interior Department, said the YDP
workgroup provided an important
adjunct to the diplomacy and ongoing
binational discussions of water issues.
The "bedrock" of the relationship is the
1944 treaty, but Snow said that does not
preclude other collaborations. "I think
there are solutions coming from within
Mexico. I think America can be a
partner for that, with the Basin states,
with the knowledge of the stakeholders
in the [Colorado] Basin," he said.
Hinojosas group, Pronatura, is
spearheading an initiative to restore
the delta region in collaboration with
organizations on both sides of the
border, local communities and some
Mexican government agencies. The
initiative's primary goal is restoration of
the delta ecosystem not to some pristine
past condition, but to what is possible
within existing development in the
Mexicali Valley and the limitations of
V I the existing flood-
.e
plain, he said.
• • I To achieve that
goal, Hinojosa said
legal protection for
wetlands needs to be
expanded beyond the existing Biosphere
Reserve. A water program needs to be
created to get water to the wetlands,
but it must be a program that includes
participatory management by local
communities and government agencies,
he said.
"We are creating a water trust in
Mexico to acquire water rights within
the Mexicali Valley and dedicate them
for the environment to maintain a
perennial base flow, all with Mexican
water and within Mexican institutions,"
Hinojosa said. But the long -term health
of the riparian system will also require
some kind of binational agreement on
pulse flows, he said.
All- American Canal Case
A border issue that seems to encapsu-
late many of the concerns about water
and the environment is the litigation
filed over the lining of the All- American
Canal, located in California just north
of the U.S.- Mexico border. Authorized
by Congress in 1988, the lining project
has been stalled not only by funding
problems, but also by concerns raised
by the Mexican government.
The project entails constructing a
among them the binational International Boundary and Water Commission
(IBWC), which administers the 1944 water treaty between the U.S. and Mexico.
Other unilateral institutions include the North American Development Bank
(NADB) and the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC), the
U.S. Interior and State departments, EPA and its Mexican counterpart,
Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales ( SEMARNAT). The
Comision Nacional del Agua (CNA), Mexico's National Water Commission, is a
division of SEMARNAT with state offices in Baja California and Sonora that
manages Mexico's water supply. A host of NGOs also are actively involved on
both sides of the border. •
WINTER 2005-2006 • RIVER REPORT • COLORADO RIVER PROJECT • 7