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tl"." ':: '- 0 uui:",~ Salinity oj the' Lower Colorado River /33 vote on the treaty. The other five basin states agreed with the proposed treaty and joined with Texas in July, 1944, in sup- porting its ratification. Reading between the lines of the record, it seems clear that United States proponents of the treaty felt that to insist on an express provision denying the right of Mexico to water quality would risk there being no treaty, and would result in a lengthy adjudication of the issue by arbitration or before an inter- national tribunal. They felt that the treaty as written would seIVe the best interest of the United States by limiting Mexico's claim to Colorado River waters as soon as possible, since Mexican uses from the Colorado River (and the Rio Grande) were rapidly expanding. The Mexican negotiators did not insist upon a water qual- . ity provision either, because they thought that the treaty as written would protect their rights and that the United States would act in good faith in carrying out the purpose of the treaty that was stated in the preamble: "to fix and delimit the rights of the two countries with respect to the waters of the Colorado and T~uana River. . . in order to obtain the most complete and sat. isfactory utilization thereof. . . ." The Mexican authorities also felt that their interests would be seIVed by reaching an agreement soon, before the United States further increased its uses of waters of the Colorado and the Rio Grande rivers. From my talks with RJ. Tipton, one of the principal United States negotiators, it seems abundantly clear that none of the negotiators in either country anticipated that return flows with salinity as high as 6,000 ppm would ever be deliv- ered to Mexico as part of its treaty allotment of Colorado River waters. The salinity of the return flows was far in excess of that ordinarily required for successful operation of irrigation pro- jects. Mexico's Water Use Mexico uses the treaty waters it receives to irrigate about 300,000 acres in the delta of the Colorado River, in the Mexi- cali and San Luis Valleys. The waters are applied mostly in areas of clay soils. The Mexicali and San Luis Valleys, includ- ing the city of Mexicali, had a population of about 400,000 in 1961. The area remains one of the most productive and prosperous agricultural areas in Mexico. Mexicali is the state capital of Baja California and has long been politically important in the Mexican government. The First Presidential Directives Mexico's formal protest in November, 1961, led United States President John F. Kennedy and Mexico's President