WSP02914

• File Number: 8278.400
• Description: Title I - Mexican Treaty
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 2/1/1963
• Author: USDOI/BOR
• Title: Special Studies - Delivery of Water to Mexico
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

Chapter I

Introduction

r

Purpose

This document updates the status of the
Title I program of the Colorado River Basin
Salinity Control Act (Title I)-as authorized
by Public Law 93-320 and amended by
Public Law 96-336 (appendix A)-and sets
forth an action plan for future activities.
This document reviews the history and
provisions of Title I; provides an update on
its major works; sUIlllllarizes construction
and operation, maintenance, replacement,
and energy costs (OMR&E); and evaluates
the ability of Title I to support its objectives.
This document also satisfies the Title I
portions of a September 1990 agreement
between the Bureau of Reclamation
(Reclamation) and the Office ofInspector
General (OIG). The agreement was reached
to resolve the recoIlllllendations contained
in a 1989 OIG survey audit report on the
Colorado River Basin Salinity Control
Program.

,

In its report, OIG expressed concern about
(1) the ability of the Title I program to meet
its objective of providing Mexico with
Colorado River water that meets negotiated
salinity standards without depriving the
Colorado River Basin States (Basin States)
of any of their apportioned water, (2) re-
placement of the reject stream from the
Yuma Desalting Plant (YDP), (3) increases
in projected YDP operating and capital
costs, and (4) alternative me8JlB of com-
plying with Title I salinity requirements.
OIG also reco=ended that Reclamation
"provide Congress additional information
upon which to judge the reasonability and
desirability of continuing with the Title I

>

program in its current context." The
portions of the audit report concerning the
Title II program of the Colorado River Basin
Salinity Control Act were addressed in
Quality of Water, Colorado River Basin,
Progress Report No. 15, a biennial report to
the Congress released in June 1991. (See
page 56, "State and Local Cooperators.")

Scope

Public Law 93-320 seeks, through a
program of works in the Colorado River
Basin, to control the salinity of water
delivered to users in the United States and
Mexico. Title I authorizes salinity control
projects downstream from Imperial Dam,
the last Colorado River diversion structure
in the United States. (See frontispiece
map.) The Title II program authorizes
salinity control projects upstream from
Imperial Dam.

Specifically, Title I allows the United States
to comply with its obligations under Minute
No. 242 of the International Boundary and
Water Commission (Minute No. 242).
Minute No. 242 is an extension of the 1944
water treaty with Mexico to address the
salinity of Colorado River water delivered to
Mexico and to satisfy the concerns of the
seven Basin States of Arizona, California,
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and
Wyoming. (See appendix B.) In enacting
Title I, Congress also sought to advance
desalting technologies through construction
and operation of the YDP.