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at Imperial Dam, This was a minor inconvenience compared to the complaints that came from Mexico where water was diverted at Morelos Dam for use in Mexicali Valley, This developed into an international situation, This problem was the source of much emotional hysteria, It was a natural for the opposition political party in Mexico to pick up and dramatize, A picture of a campesino's family of 8 or 10 persons, standing , in front of their mud hut with thatch roof, with a salt encrusted field in the background, made excellent propaganda, The treaty of 1944 between the United States and Mexico establish- ed Mexico's portion of the flow of the Colorado River to be 1,500,000 acre feet per year, The treaty also said that the water to be furnished Mexico "shall be made up of the waters of said river, whatever their origin." Other than that, the treaty said nothing about quality, Wellton-Mohawk's side of the controversy is explained in "Well- ton-Mohawk Drainage and the Mexican Salt Problem" by C, C, Tabor, a paper published by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1973, copies are available at the District for $1.50, Minute 218 Seeking a permanent solution, Mexico and the United States en- tered into an agreement whereby the United States constructed a 353- cfs concrete lined channel, 12 miles long, from a point at Avenue M'2 in the Gila Valley to Morelos Dam, This channel has a bifurcation feature so that all or part of the channel flow could be diverted into the Colorado River at the Northern Boundary above Morelos Dam or the flow could bypass Morelos. This channel, known as MODE (Main Outlet Drain Extension), and the agreement or Minute, went in opera- tion on November 15, 1965 for a 5-year trial period, This ended in November 1970, Mexico did not want negotiations going on during a presidential election year so the Minute was extended for one year. Part of the operation of this Minute was a program of selective pumping whereby the better quality wells were pumped from February 11 to September 30, when Mexico requirements were such that there was sufficient Colorado River water to dilute the drainage, and worse quality wells were pumped October 1 to February 10 when the drainage effluent could be by-passed, Minute 241 Mexico's canal lining improvement program (1969-74) did not stop the howling, President Echevveria called on President Nixon early in 1972, This brought forth Minute 241 which provided for bypassing most of the Wellton-Mohawk drainage for the rest of 1972, and Mexico, with great show on June 26, 1972, had the MODE bifurcation gates closed and all the drainage water bypassed, ~ i >; 'l ~ I 11 14 j ~