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<br />O~~1"1 <br />l..r:~'t... <br /> <br />34/Friedkin <br /> <br />Lopez Mateos to announce jointly in March. 1962. that there <br />was an urgent need for a mutually satisfactory solution. and <br />that they would call upon water and soil scientists of the two <br />countries to assist the International Boundary and Water <br />Commission in adopting remedial measures. The two presi- <br />dents met again in June. 1962. noting that measures had been <br />taken to reduce the salinity of the waters delivered to Mexico. <br />and expressing their determination to reach an early. perma- <br />nent solution. In April and May. 1962. a panel of United States <br />scientists selected by the Secretary of the Interior met with a <br />similar panel of Mexican scientists. The panels were unable to <br />agree on a joint report for solution of the problem. however. <br />because they eould not develop a joint technical solution with- <br />out prejudice to the legal position of one country or the other. <br /> <br />TheFNe-Yeu~eement <br />In 1965. the International Boundary and Water Commis- <br />sion recommended measures to reduce the salinity of the water <br />delivered to Mexico. based on the two panels' discussioI1$. stud- <br />ies by the Bureau of Reclamation. and eonsultations with Mex- <br />ican officials. The two governments approved the recommen- <br />dations in a Five-Year Agreement (later extended one year). re- <br />ferred to as the Commission's Minute No. 218.5 The agreement <br />provided for the following measures: <br />1. Construction by the United States of an extension to the <br />Wellton-Mohawk District's drainage channel. to enable the <br />discharge of the District's drainage waters to the Colorado <br />River either above or below'Morelos Dam. Mexico's major <br />point of diversion. <br />2. Discharge of all Wellton-Mohawk drainage waters be- <br />low Morelos Dam, except those which Mexico requests to be <br />discharged above the dam. <br />3. During at least ninety days in the winter months of <br />minimum deliveries to Mexico. the United States was to pump <br />the most saline waters from the District from existing and new <br />drainage wells and discharge them to the river below Morelos <br />Dam, making up Mexico's scheduled deliveries from other wa- <br />ters in the river. <br />Under the 1965 agreement. the annual average salinity of <br />the waters delivered to Mexico gradually improved. from about <br />1.370 ppm in 1965 to 1.240 ppm in June 1971. But because Mex- <br />ico determined in 1965 that its farmers should not use waters <br />of salinity higher than about 1.200 ppm, 40.000 to 75.000 acre- <br />. <.-r. <br />feet annually of Wellton-Mohawk drainage waters were not <br />used by Mexico, but were bypassed to the river below Morelos <br />Dam. This operation enabled Mexico to reduce the annual av- <br />erage salinity of waters diverted to about 1.160 ppm in 1971. <br />