WSPC04953 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

0222~8 THE INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM WITH MEXICO OVER THE SALINITY OF THE LOWER COLORADO RIVER Joseph F. Friedkin* In June, 1972, Mexican President Echeverria protested to President Nixon and before a joint session of the United States Congress that the high levels of salinity In the waters of the Colorado River delivered to Mexico under the 1944 Water Treaty were damaging Mexico's Irrigated crops. .He urged an early, definitive solution to this decade-old problem. which Mexican authorities Identified as the most serious issue to come between the United States and Mexico In many years. United States representatives from the seVen Colorado River Basin states opposed any solution that would result In any cost to them or Impair their development. Resolution of the prob- lem required the federal government to reconcile its foreign relations concerns with Its domestic coneerns. A retrospective view of the salinity dispute may assist fu- ture dialogue on the Issue and efforts to find solutions. I have attempted to present sueh a view In this essay, based on my close association with the Colorado River salinity problem from its Inception in 1961 through the agreement for its solu- tion In 1974. THE PROBLEM From the time the Colorado River provisions of the 1944 Treaty with Mexico became effective In 1950 until 1961, there was no problem created by the salinity of the treaty waters de- livered to Mexico. The average annual salinity of the waters ranged from about 700 to 920 parts per million (ppm) of dis- solved solids. The salinity was about the same as that of the waters diverted by the lowermost users In the United States at Imperial Dam about twenty miles upstream from the boundary with Mexico. But in 1961, the annual average salinity of the treaty deliveries to Mexico sharply Increased to 1.340 ppm. and In some months it exceeded 2,500 ppm. In November. 1961, Mexico formally protested to the United States about the in- . United States Commlsstoner, Intemattonal Boundary & Water Commission from April 1962 to May 1986.