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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Second, the Wellton-Mohawk Division of the Gila Project, a 75,000- <br /> <br />acre irrigation project utilizing Colorado River water and located along <br /> <br />the lower Gila River just east of Yuma, Arizona, began ground-water <br />i\.') <br />l\J pumping operations in 1961 to drain off excess ground water which <br />G <br />W was approaching the crop root zone in many areas. The Project had <br /> <br />reached this condition by the application of excess irrigation water, <br /> <br />without drainage facilities, for nearly 10 years, initially to leach some <br /> <br />of the more saline soils, and annually thereafter to maintain salt <br />balance. This pumped drainage water, at first in excess of 200,000 <br /> <br />acre-feet per year at 6,000 parts per million (p/m), was diverted to <br /> <br />the Gila River channel where, consequently, it flowed into the <br />Colorado River at their confluence, just east of Yuma. <br /> <br />The combination of saline Wellton-Mohawk drainage and lower <br />runoff in the basin (less water for dilution) increased the salinity of <br /> <br />Colorado River water delivered to Mexico at the Northerly International <br /> <br />Boundary from an annual average of about 800 p/m to nearly 1,500 <br /> <br /> <br />p/m by 1962. As a consequence of continued protests by Mexico, the <br /> <br />United States began to bypass some, then eventually, all the Wellton- <br /> <br />Mohawk drainage to the old river channel below Morelos Dam, which <br /> <br />necessitated its replacement by other waters from above Imperial Dam <br /> <br />in the United States, since the drainage water had been accredited as <br /> <br />part of Mexico's annual 1.5 million acre-feet allotment since it had <br /> <br />first been pumped from Division lands. <br /> <br />During the 60's and early 70's, representatives of both Govern- <br /> <br />ments had worked on various resolutions to the salinity problem which, <br /> <br />2 <br />