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<br />02480
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<br />MARCH 25, 1944
<br />
<br />Te.xas. Beginning, however, in the early 1930's
<br />the Government of Mexico made plans for the
<br />ultimate irrigation of nearly 500,000 acres along
<br />the main stream and the tributaries of .this river~
<br />These :projects have already reached the point
<br />where the natural flow of the Rio Grande is in-
<br />sufficie!lt in years of low run-off.
<br />During the first two decades of this century, this
<br />problem of the lower Rio Grande received the at-
<br />ten,tion of the two Governments on' several oc-
<br />casions and was the object of study by joint com.
<br />missions. No material results came from' these
<br />early efforts, and beginning in 1924 another serious
<br />'attempt was made to reach an agreement between
<br />the two countries regarding the distribution of
<br />the waters of the Rio Grande. In that year the
<br />Congress <if the United States passed an act (43
<br />Stat. 118) approving the establishment of an In-
<br />ternational Water Commission, United States and
<br />Mexico, to make a study regarding the equitable
<br />use of the waters of this river below Fort Quit-
<br />mnn, Texas. The refusal of the Government. of
<br />Mexico to consider the Rio Grande without also
<br />considering the Colorado led to the pnssage hy
<br />the Congress of the joint resolution of March 3,
<br />'1927 (44 Stat. 1043), amending the act of 1924
<br />to make it cover not only the Rio Grande but also
<br />the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers, This Commis-
<br />sion made an investigation of these rivers but was
<br />unable to reach an agreement regarding the dis-
<br />, trihution of their waters, So far as the Rio
<br />Grunde was concerned, the chief difficulty lay in
<br />the fact that, whereas 70 percent of the water sup-
<br />ply below Fort Quitman, Texas, had its origin in
<br />Mexico, most of th~ irrigated acreage was in Texas,
<br />and Mexico was unwilling to guarantee the per-
<br />petuation of the Texas developments, insisting in-
<br />stead that the water of the main stream should be
<br />divided equally, with eacb country retaining the
<br />right to develop its tributaries to the fullest extent.
<br />Following the failure of the International
<br />Water Commission to reach an agreement on the
<br />Rio Grande, the situation facing the water-users
<br />grew steadily worse. In the effort to discover a
<br />rational solution for the problem, a tborough in-
<br />vestigation was made by a panel of engineers asso.
<br />ciated with the United States Section of the Inter-
<br />national Bound"ry Commission, on the hasis of
<br />which there was developed what is known as the
<br />Valley Gravity and Storage Project (Federal
<br />
<br />285
<br />
<br />Project 5). Under this project, an initial ap-
<br />propriation for which was made in 1941 (55 Stat.
<br />303), the lower valley of Texas would be prote,cted
<br />by means of off-river storage, 11 gravity diversion
<br />canal to tap the Rio G,rande near the town of
<br />Zapata, Texas, and a system of'feeder al)d dis-
<br />tribution canals, the total to cost in the neighbor-
<br />hood of $55,000,000, Ultimately it was 'planned
<br />to,build storage reservoirs on the Pecos and Devils
<br />Rivers, both tributaries of the Rio Grande, This
<br />project, wbile technically feasible, must be re-
<br />garded as a second choice, the first choice being
<br />always a workable treaty with Mexico to pro-
<br />vide for international storage dams and other
<br />works on the main stream. Even with a treaty
<br />of th is kind, those features of this project located
<br />below Roma 'or Rio Grnnde City, Texas, would
<br />still be needed to complement the treaty works.
<br />Turning now to the Colorado River, it will be
<br />noted that the problems of this river system were
<br />approached also from both the interstate and
<br />the international angle. M>xico became involved
<br />when the Imperial Valley Project was first begun,
<br />for this development waS based upon a gravity
<br />canal that headed in the Colorado River imme-
<br />diately above the international boundary, crossed
<br />the boundary into Mexico, and then turned west
<br />and northwest back across the boundary to the
<br />Imperial Valley of Southern California. The con-
<br />struction of this canal required a concession from
<br />Mexico, under the terms of which Mexico could use
<br />1>alf the capacity of the canal.
<br />At the same time that the two Governments were
<br />making efforts early in this century to reach an
<br />agreement on the distribution of the waters of the
<br />Rio Grande, they were seeking agreement also on
<br />the Colorado. These early diplomatic efforts
<br />failed and were not renewed until the International'
<br />Water Commission, mentioned above, undertook
<br />its studies in 1928.
<br />Meanwhile, the great increase in irrigation in
<br />the seven basin States, coupled with the gravity of
<br />the flood menace, led to efforts to reach an inter-
<br />state agreement for the apportionment among
<br />these States of the water supply of the Colorado
<br />River system. ' In view of plans to construct a stor.
<br />age reservoir in the Boulder Canyon region for the,
<br />better regulation of irrigation Bupply, for flood
<br />control, and for power production, it became im-
<br />portant for the basin States to know in advance
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