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<br />[IDOOill~1J <br /> <br />SECTION 3 - HISTORICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND <br /> <br />Introduction <br /> <br />The history of the Rio Grande Project goes back over 100 years. It involves <br />controversies not only between the United States and Mexico that led to several treaties and <br />conventions, but also among the Federal Government and the States of Colorado, New Mexico, <br />and Texas that led to the apportionment of the Rio Grande in the Rio Grande Compact. The <br />Rio Grande Project involves the USBR, which constructed the project, and the IBWC, which has <br />responsibilities relating to the delivery of water to Mexico. The EBID and the EPCWID were <br />formed originally to represent the water users and to repay the costs of certain aspects of the <br />Project, but now operate and maintain the project diversion dams, canals, and drainage <br />facilities. In more recent years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been involved through <br />the operation of various flood control measures. This complex historical and institutional <br />background is discussed in this section of the report. <br /> <br />General Proiect Hlstorv <br /> <br />The Rio Grande Joint Investigation (pp. 71-74) summarizes the early history of the Rio <br />Grande Project area and documents the underpinnings of the project. Although irrigation had <br />been practiced in the general area since at least the 17th century, the development had been on <br />a relatively small scale and difficult to maintain. Spanish colonists irrigated lands in the EI Paso <br />area, primarily on the Mexican side of the river, from the time of their first occupation of the area <br />in the late 1600s. Pueblo Indians may have irrigated areas in the Rincon and Mesilla Valleys <br />prior to the Spanish colonization. Additional non-Indian irrigation developed between 1840 and <br />1880 through canals and simple diversion structures and community systems of ditches. Floods <br />in the Rio Grande and an "ever-shifting" bed made it difficult to establish and maintain diversion <br />and delivery facilities. A 1928 report by Herbert W. Yeo, then New Mexico State Engineer, <br />gives the following figures for the irrigated acreage in the Rio Grande Project area in 1907 prior <br />to the development of the project: <br /> <br />r, -, 1"""1', " <br />'''-r' \... '_ ';i. <br /> <br />3 -1 <br /> <br />c <br />