WSP06975

• File Number: 8273.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control - Federal Agencies - Bureau of Reclamation
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1979
• Author: BOR
• Title: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Project - Background Plan and Status Report
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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'~President Echeverria said that he recognized the goodwi1'1 of
Rresident Nixon and his interest in finding a definitive solution
to this problem at the earliest possible time.

'~Both Pres i dents agreed to instruct thei r Water and Border Commis-
sioners to prepare and sign a Minute containing the above program
and commitments as soon as possible,"

On Ju~y 14, the Commissioners signed a new agreement, Minute No. 241,
provi~ing for immediate improvement in the quality of Colorado River water
to be 'delivered to Mexico.

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This agreement, superseding Minute No, 218, provided for bypassing Wel1ton-
Mohawk drainage, without charge against Treaty water deliveries to Mexico,
at an 'annual rate of 118,000 acre-feet, more than twice the rate of bypass
resulting under Minute No. 218, In place of these waters, the United'States
substiituted an equal quantity of other waters from above Imperial Dam and
from twelve wells on the Yuma Mesa.

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For it,s part, the Government of Mexico requested the United States also to
bypas~ the rest of the drainage from the We11ton-Mohawk District, amounting
to a rate of approximately 100,000 acre-feet annually, for which no sub-
stitution would be made.

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In accordance with the Joint Communique, President Nixon announced on'
August 16 that Herbert Brownell would be his Special Representative for
the Resolution of the Salinity Problem with Mexico. Working under the
auspiqes of the White House, Mr. Herbert Brownell was assisted by an
inter~gency Task Force consisting of representatives of the Department
of St~te, the Department of the Interior, the United States Section of
the I~ternationa1 Boundary and Water Commission, the Department of
Defen~e (Corps of Engineers), the Environmental Protection Agency, the
Counci'l on Envi ronmental Quality, the Offi ce of Sci ence and Technology,
the Office of Management and Budget, and the Domestic Council. The
Department of Agriculture has provided valuable technical advice.

Beginning in September 1972, the Task Force met weekly to consider
systematically all elements of possible permanent solutions to the problem.!
It a1sp made a trip over the Colorado River; visited the We11ton-Mohawk
Distrfct, Yuma Mesa, Imperial Valley, and other pertinent border areas;
and met three times with the Committee of Fourteen, Mr. Brownell visited
MexicQ City to confer with President Echeverria, Foreign Relations Secretary
Rabas~, Hydraulic Resources Secretary Rovirosa, Governor of the State; of
Baja C~lifornia Castellanos, and other interested Mexican officials; visited
Mexica1i Valley, together with agricultural and irrigation technicians to
observe conditions there; and met with Governors Love of Colorado and'
Williams of Arizona, with knowledgeable Congressional representatives and
with concerned private citizens.

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