WSP06020

• File Number: 8271.300
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - General Information and Publications-Reports
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/3000
• Author: Sidney McFarland
• Title: Water Quality and the Law of the River
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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River water except by contract with the Secretary. Pursuant to

this authority, the Secretary entered. into water supply contracts
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vith the Palo Verde Irrigation District,.the Coachella Valley
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Irrigation District, the }letropolitan \Vater District of Southern

alifornia, and the City of San Diego. He also entered into a

contract with the State of Nevada to furnish water apportioned

to it by the Act.

The State of nrizona ratified the Colorado River Compact on

February 24, 1944 and in the same year entered into a contract with
the Secretary of the Interior for 2.8 million acre-feet of water

from the Colorado River. None of the water contracts included pro-
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Iv~s~ons cover~ng wa er qua ~ y.
i The Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act rel.ates to the

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'project power operations, including the determination of' rates and

disp~sition of revenues.
Water quality is not mentioned among the purposes of the

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Boulder Canyon Project Act or in the legislative history. Again

the amounts of water set out in the Act are in terms of quantity

only. However, the high mineral content of the water reachin;T the

Imperial and C0achella Valleys has become more and more of a problem

in recent years.

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MEXICAN WATER TREATY

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llexico began pressing for a permanent .and assured share of,

Colorado River water prior to the time of the Colorado River Compact,

and discussion of water for Mexico occupied a prominent part of

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the negotiations for the Compact. The Compact recognized that an

allocation to Mexico might be required in the-future.

In 1925,

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