WSP00860

• File Number: 8278.400
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - Mexican Treaty - Development and History
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 7/26/1946
• Title: Light on the Mexican Water Treaty from the Ratification Proceedings in Mexico - A Report to the Colorado River Water Users Association
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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MEXICAN WATER TREATY

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Mexican lands of the Mexicali Valley can be dying of thirst, in the following
weeks they may be choked and submerged by the inundations provoked by dis-
charges from the American dams. .
Under these conditions the agriculture of the Mexicali- Valley is in de~perate con~
dt'Uon. In order to better it, 'IJn'thout the treaty, it has been necessary for the Mexican
Government, in the years 1943 and 1944 and the present year, to be constantly request-
ing of the American Government that the discharges be now in1]reased, that tomorrow
they be diminished, that part of the water be furnished through the All-American
Canal, etc. ,
. This critical situation makes clear how unfounded is the opinion of some of our
citizens who believe that Mexico should not be preoccupied in the case of the Colorado
River and that the treaty was not needed.. as it could always take the abundant water
which ineviklbly flows in the Colorado River. We ii.1sist, that, effectively, in the
case of the Colorado River a;s in the case of the lVlexican tributaries of the Rio
Grande, there will always be surpluses which will flow in the beds of said rivers
but these surpluses cannot be used in irrigation due to their eminently irregular
regimen in present years and much less in.future years. 'The only solution 'for
using them would be to regulate them by a storage dam and we must remember
that at the beginning of this exposition we said that in Mexico there' is not the
slightest possibility of storing the surplus water of the Colorado River,-a'possibility
which exists for the surplus waters that flow in the Rio Grande. .
For this and many other reasons we who know the .problems of the Mexicali Valley
in its painful reality have always been convinced that there was no other solution than
that which a treaty gives which guarantees water from the Colorado River for the
~rrigation of its lands. .
The treaty which is under consideration resolves this problem tOrive Alba;
EI Universal, August 1,1945; U. S. Senate Doe. No. 98, 79th Cong., pp. 14, 15).

. At another point 'this eminent Mexican authority, having told of
Mexico's "desperate condition" without a treaty, painted the following

contrasting picture of her happy situation under the treaty (E]
Universal, August 1, 1945; U. S. Senate Doc. No. 98, 79th Cong.,

pp. 14, 15): . .

It is necessary to note that as Mexico did not 'have any place to regulate the
waters of the'Colorado River in order to distribute them day by day, during each
year, according to the needs of irrigation, it was necessary to arrange by means of
the treaty /01' the United States to deliver that water to us regulated to our wishes within
certain limitations which do not impose on us any sacrifice for any plan of cultivation
that is followed in'Mexicali Valley. For this service of regulation of that water, 'our
country does not have to pay a single cent. Besides this, on account of the topo-
graphical conditions -of the lands to be irrigated on both b~nks of the Colorado
River, it was necessary to arrange that the water of the Colorado River be deliv-
ered to us when desired by Mexico, compatible with the needs of the lands to
be irrigated at three different points.
1. At Pilot Knob, in order to irrigate the, high lands which are found adjacent
to the Colorado River on its right bank. <
2. At Sarr Luis, Sonora, in order to irrigate the high lands which are found on
the left bank of the Colorado River.
3. At the Colorado River, in order tlui.t by lUeans of. the constru,ction 'of an
international dam at the site where Mexico may desire it the rest of the lands on
both banks of the river can be irrigated. -
Mexico even has the possibility, if it so desires, of'obtaining construction by
Arizona, of a canal'which would carry waters of the Colorado River from a diver-
sion dam constructed on the section of the river bounding the lands of Sonora.
These are the advantages obtained by the treaty which cannot be relegated to a second
place, but which for our country have fundamental importance because 'If it were not
for them we would not be able even to use the annual volume that the treaty assigns to
Me:x:ico. [Emphasis supplied.]
SUMMARY

SO much for the assumptions upon which the treaty was based.

The two sets of hearings make it very clear that one group of negotia-
tors or the other was totally mistaken:

First. As to the irrigab]e acreage in Mexico.

Second. As to the land and water already put to use in Mexico,

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