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Western States Water Council Meeting Boise, Idaho April 12, 1974 ,<......" [~t~~~~ N i'0 W o the amounts of substffutton water b"6rrowed in the earlier years. Coachella Valley interests will assume the water savings and will begin repayment of the unamortized costs of lining the Canal once CAP goes on the line and California's supplies from the Colorado River are reduced. To limit the amount of return flow to be treated in the desalting plant, the acreage on which irrigation would be permitted in the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation District would be reduced from the authorized level of 75,000 acres to a level of from 60,000 to 65,000 acres. The objective is to reduce the annual drainage flow from the district from a current level of 218,000AF/yr down to 175,000 AF /yr. 140,000 acre-feet will then be treated in the desalter, The resulting 100,000 acre-feet of product water will be mixed with the remaining 35,000 acre-feet of drainage water and the blend returned to the river at Imperial quality. Appreximately 43,000 acre-feet of effluent from the desalter, with a salt content of 9,600 ppm, will be discharged by lined channel to the Gulf. Special Ambassador Brownell repeatedly assured the Basin States that resolution of the Mexican salinity problem would be achieved without injury to the Colorado River Basin States and without impairment of development therein. He gave this same assurance to the general public during the press conference at San Clemente announcing the signing of the agreement. . Minute 242 has been entered into as an interpretation of the Treaty and, therefore, as not requiring Senate confirmation. This in spite of the fact that the Minute introduces two subjects on which the Treaty was silent=ground water and water quality. Minute 242 goes far beyond the legal requirements of the Treaty and was entered into to promote the national interest in inter- national comity. The Basin States will not collectively or individually benefit, aside from the national benefits from comity with Mexico and future benefits to the Coachella Valley County Water District, the costs of which the district has agreed to repay. Hence, we believe the agreement should be considered a national obligation and the people of the Colorado River Basin States should not be expected to bear any greater share of the costs of the new agreement with Mexico than the taxpayers of other parts of the nation. .-} .~ " ,J A-8 ,"- - "':'h.",.,,,<. 'i1'",L~~,;4\,'" '