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<br />-9- <br /> <br />two countries, and the risk of an adverse ruling by an international <br /> <br />tribunal. Neither Government wanted to take that risk and endure the <br /> <br />tv <br />W <br />/'\:' <br />0) <br /> <br />"law's delay." Yet.only by reaching a mutually satisfactory agreement <br /> <br />could risk and delay be avoided. By reaching a bilateral agreement the <br /> <br />two Governments confirmed that they are quite capable of reconciling by them~ <br /> <br />selves their differences in interpretation of the 1944 Water Treaty. Each <br /> <br />can now turn to the utilization of water resources that are assuredly its <br /> <br />own. <br /> <br />Of almost equal importance was the decision early arrived at that if <br /> <br />the United States must make a major concession, it must be at the cost of <br /> <br />money rather than water. The simplistic solution, as you must visualize, <br /> <br />would have been to bypass all the Wellton-Mohawk drainage water, replacing <br /> <br />it with water in storage. I don't know from whose farm or State the <br /> <br />substitution water would have had to be taken. I do not know how the <br /> <br />Congress and the courts would have allocated the burden, but, clearly, <br /> <br />because there is no surplus water, some would have suffered. However, <br /> <br />that issue might have been resolved, there would have remained the awesome <br /> <br />. spectacle of large quantities of water being wasted once again, and this <br /> <br />, <br />j <br /> <br />time deliberately, from the Colorado to the Gulf of California. Wisely, I <br /> <br />believe, we chose instead to resort to the financial resources of the <br /> <br />;i <br /> <br />country, consistent with the declaration of the Congress in the Colorado <br /> <br />River Basin Project Act (82 Stat. 887) that the satisfaction of the require- <br /> <br />ments of the Mexican Water Treaty from the Colorado River constitutes a <br /> <br />national obligation. We believe and trust that the Congress will be receptiv4 <br /> <br />to this proposition. When the desalting plant comes on stream, the only loss <br /> <br />