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Water supplies available to the Lower Rio Grande Valley include a small quantity of groundwater in the Rio Grande alluvium and the flow of the Rio Grande, most of which is available from storage in International Amistad and Falcon Reservoirs. Groundwater in the Rio Grande alluvium is gener- ally too saline for municipal and most industrial uses. The limited supplies which are available are principally for irri- gation (only about 5,000 acre-feet of groundwater is used annually for municipal and industrial purposes). Widespread use of this marginal-quality water has resulted in severe and widespread agricultural soil salinity problems. Over-applica- tion of irrigation water has resulted in local drainage problems. Currently, municipal and industrial water use in the 4-county region approximates 65 million gallons per day (72,809 acre-feet per year), with existing steam-electric power plants consuming an additional 5,000 acre-feet of water annually. In addition to individual industries which have developed independent water supply systems, there are approximately 39 purveyors of municipal, domestic, and "light" industrial water supplies to approximately 102 water using entities in the 4-county area. Several irrigation districts also supply water to a number of small cities and com- munities -- frequently on a temporary basis -- through irrigation diversion and conveyance facilities. Of approximately 144 cities, incorporated and unincorporated communities, water supply corporations and other entities in the area, 42 such communities, representing about 20 percent of the Valley's population, are not served by pub- lic water supply systems. Inferior water quality (high dissolved solids concentrations and excessive hardness) and problems of in- sufficient raw water storage and water treatment plant capacity plague much of the Valley population. Currently, over seven thousand operating units, served by 33 active irrigation districts as well as individual and cooperate irrigation systems, use approximately one million acre-feet annually to irrigate more than 800,000 acres of land in the Rio Grand~ Valley. More than 500,000 acres of additional potentially highly-productive irrigable lands exist in the Valley which could be put into produc- tion if water were available. Water available to the Valley from the Rio Grande is subject to provisions of the International Treaty of 1944 between the United States and Mexico, the supply available in storage in Amistad and Falcon Reservoirs, and allocations of this , . r , .., v'..'I..,,(..J 60