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<br />OG2153 <br /> <br />risky--means to implement an international agreement? To <br />answer that question, we must look at the history of that <br />decision--the people involved, their perspectives and <br />limitations, the courses of action they believed were <br />available, and the constraints under which they worked. But <br />first, what was the problem they were solving--or thought <br />they were solving? <br /> <br />) <br /> <br />The Emerqence of the Salinity Issue <br /> <br />The treaty that guaranteed Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet of <br />Colorado River water annually "fro~ any and all sources" did <br />not specify its quality. Until 1961, few if any problems <br />arose from the salinity of water deliveries. In that year, <br />Wellton-Mohawk's drains began to pump water laden with salts <br />that had accumulated in the soils beneath the project from <br />decades of irrigation without drainage, and to discharge <br />them to the Colorado above Morelos Darn, the main Mexican <br />diversion point. <br /> <br />, <br />., <br /> <br />The discharge of 6,000 ppm waters to the river, coupled with <br />a reduction in upstream releases due to the completion of <br />Glen Canyon Darn and the filling of Lake Powell, caused the <br />average annual salinity of water delivered to Mexico at <br />Morelos Darn to rise from a range of 700 to 900 ppm, to 1,340 <br />ppm. Salinity levels in some months exceeded 2,500 ppm. In <br />November 1961, the government of Mexico filed a formal <br />diplomatic protest, charging the U.S. with violating <br />international law. <br /> <br />For the next ten years, Mexican and U.s. scientists, <br />diplomats, and politicians debated the intent of the 1944 <br />treaty, technical issues, and equities under international <br />law, without reaching a permanent solution.1 In 1965, the <br />U.S., under Minute No. 218 of the International Boundary and <br />Water Commission (IBWC), agreed to several temporary <br /> <br />2 <br />