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<br />Executive Summary <br /> <br />Purpose <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />This document updates the status of the <br />Title I program of the Colorado River Basin <br />Salinity Control Act (Title I)-as authorized <br />by Public Law 93-320 and amended by <br />Public Law 96-336-and sets forth an action <br />plan for future activities. This document <br />also satisfies the Title I portions of a <br />September 1990 agreement between the <br />Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and <br />the Office of Inspector General (OIG), The <br />agreement was reached to resolve the <br />recoIlllllendations contained in a 1989 OIG <br />survey audit report on the Colomdo River <br />Basin Salinity Control Program.. <br /> <br />In its report, OIG expressed concern about <br />(1) the ability of the Title I program to meet <br />its objective of providing Mexico with <br />Colorado River water that meets negotiated <br />salinity standards without depriving the <br />Colorado River Basin States (Basin States) <br />of any of their apportioned water, (2) re- <br />placement of the reject stream from the <br />Yuma Desalting Plant (YDP), (3) increases <br />in projected YDP opemting and capital <br />costs, and (4) aliernative meaDB of com- <br />plying with Title I salinity requirements. <br /> <br />\ <br /> <br />OIG also recommended that Reclamation <br />"provide Congress additional information <br />upon which to judge the reasonability and <br />desirability of continuing with the Title I <br />program in its current context," <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />Title I Objectives <br /> <br />Title fs objective is to allow the United <br />States to comply with its obligations under <br />Minute No, 242 of the International <br />Boundary and Water Commission (Minute <br />No, 242), Minute No. 242 is an extension of <br /> <br />the 1944 water treaty with Mexico to <br />address Colorado River salinity concerns <br />without depriving the Basin States of any of <br />their apportioned water. In enacting Title I, <br />Congress also sought to advance desalting <br />technologies. <br /> <br />History <br /> <br />In 1944, the United States and Mexico <br />signed a treaty requiring the United States <br />to deliver 1,5 million acre-feet of Colorado <br />River water to Mexico annually, The treaty <br />did not address salinity. However, Mexico <br />filed a formal protest with the United States <br />when the salinity of the delivered water <br />increased sharply in the early 1960's, The <br />increase was caused primarily by the <br />discharge to the Colorado River of irrigation <br />drainage pumped from the Wellton-Mohawk <br />Irrigation and Drainage District (WMIDD) <br />in Arizona, as well as a reduction in excess <br />river flows resulting from the construction <br />and closure of Glen Canyon Dam. <br /> <br />The United States and Mexico pursued a <br />series oftemporary solutions to the salinity <br />problem throughout the 1960's and early <br />1970's, Then, in 1972, President Nixon <br />appointed Herbert Brownell to study and <br />reco=end a permanent, definitive, and <br />just solution to the problem, Among other <br />things, Brownell reco=ended (1) con- <br />structing a desalting plant to treat WMIDD <br />irrigation drainage and (2) allowing for a <br />specified differential between the salinity of <br />the waters arriving at Imperial Dam, near <br />Yuma, Arizona, and the salinity of the <br />waters delivered to Mexico. <br /> <br />The Presidents of the United States <br />and Mexico approved Brownell's <br />reco=endations in the form of Minute <br /> <br />ES-1 <br />