BOARD00158

• Board Meeting Date: 12/12/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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115 parts per million, plus or minus 30 parts. So in effect what the
United States has guaranteed to Mexico is water of a quality of 980
parts per million at Morelos Dam. Actually, Mexico takes some water
above Morelos, but in any event the implied understanding is that the
water delivered to Mexico will not exceed 980 parts per million. In
order to accomplish this, the United States will have to either
abandon the Wellton-Mohawk project or construct facilities to take
care of the Wellton-Mohawk discharge. The Minute provides that the
United States shall construct at its expense a concrete-lined drain
from the Well ton-Mohawk project to the Santa Clara Slough in Mexico,
and that these highly saline waters will then be discharged into this
slough. The United States would make up then the full Mexican Treaty
delivery at a point above the Santa Clara Slough. The drain would
also evacuate any brine which might come about as a result of the
desalting operations carried on by the United States. The intent of
the arrangement is that the United States will construct a desalting
plant near the international boundary to desalt the waters pumped
from the Well ton-Mohawk project. It is estimated that the entire
desalting scheme will cost about a hundred million dollars and that
the annual operation and maintenance would cost somewhere in the
neighborhood of ten million dollars a year. This is a very expensive
process to take care of the waters of the Wellton-Mohawk project.
This desalting complex would serve no other purpose other than to
take care of the Well ton-Mohawk project. It would not improve the
water which is delivered upstream.

There is a further provision in the Minute that Mexico will agree to
limit its pumping operations in the vicinity of the international
boundary to 160,000 acre-feet annually, which is a neat way of saying
that Mexico is entitled to another 160,000 acre-feet of water annually,
over and above the Mexican Treaty, since the water that is pumped
comes from the United States.

The United States further agreed to support efforts by the Republic
of Mexico to obtain financing on favorable terms, whatever that means,
to improve the drainage of the irrigated lands in Mexico. The primary
problem of the Mexican irrigation is that they are irrigating in
tight soils. Unless those soils are properly drained, saiinity builds
up and has an adverse effect then upon agriculture. The fact is that,
regardless of the quality of water, the Mexicans have a problem. All
water contains some salt. Unless tight soils are drained, the salin-
ity concentration builds up and eventually makes the lands unusable.

The agreement also provides that the United States will give some non-
reimbursable assistance. In other words, at -the expense of the United
States, the United States will put in a drainage system or part of a

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