WSP01896

• File Number: 8278.200
• Description: Title I - Welton - Mowhawk
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 9/1/1972
• Author: C.C. Taybor
• Title: Wellton-Mohawk Drainage and the Mexican Salt Problem
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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Pumping Plant, on the Yuma Valley Main Drain at San Luis, Arizona-Sonora.

Then I refer you to Figure 2, a map of the Mexicali and San Luis
Valleys in Baja California and Sonora respectively, This map shows the boundary
between California and Baja California and between Arizona and Sonora; these

are referred to as the Northern Boundary and the Southern Boundary, 20 miles

apart at the river, .It shows the location of the Colorado River which is the

boundary between Baja California and Arizona and between Baja California and

Sonora. Also there are the principal highways, railroad, major canals and

drains and the approximate limit of eultivation. I call your attention to the

topographic divide between the two drainage areas. A line running northeast

through Cerro Prieto and the new geothermal steam plant is approximately the

natural divide which is some 45 feet above sea level; everything northwest of

this line drains mostly into New River, a little into Alamo River, and eventually

to the Salton Sea; everything southeast of this line drains to the Colorado River.
You will also note the area of irrigation pumping where Mexico at the present

time has some 625 ground water pumps to provide additional irrigation water.

Installation of wells here started in 1955, reached 680 in 1971, and are now

being reduced in number. The water they pump comes from seepage of the All-

American Canal, Mexican canals and the Colorado River.

Figure 3 is a picture of Hoover Dam between Arizona and Nevada com-

pleted in 1935. This was the great stabilizer on the river which ended disasterous
floods and provided regulation whereby the agricultural areas downstream could
get irrigation water almost when they wanted it.

Figure 4 is a picture of Imperial Dam, completed in 1938, which diverts

water to Imperial, Coachella and the Reservation Division in California and, by

siphon under the river, to the Yuma Valley in Arizona, all through the All-American

Canal on the California side; on the Arizona side, the Gila Gravity Main Canal

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