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The Colorado River Salinity Problem with Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2017

Herbert Brownell  and
Samuel D. Eaton
Herbert Brownell
Affiliation:
The United States, 1935–57
Samuel D. Eaton
Affiliation:
U.S. Embassy, Madrid
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Extract

No other issue in recent times has so troubled our relations [with Mexico]; no other problem has so taxed our determination to seek mutually satisfactory solutions to common problems; no other problem has so tested the sincerity and ingenuity of our diplomats; and no other problem has so challenged the mutual respect and goodwill that our two countries have for each other.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , April 1975 , pp. 255 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1975

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References

1 120 CONG. REC. S-10371 (daily ed. June 12, 1974).

2 Pub. L. 93-320; 88 Stat. 266; approved June 24, 1974; 13 ILM 989 (1974).

3 Id., §§108,208.

4 Signed at Washington Feb. 3, 1944, and Protocol signed at Washington Nov. 14, 1944; 59 Stat. 1219; TS 994; 9 BEVANS 1166; 3 UNTS 313.

5 Note from Embassy of Mexico, No. 4012, Nov. 9, 1961 (files of Department of State, unpublished).

6 46 DEPT. STATE BULL. 542 (1967). See also id., 144, 650.

7 The Committee consisted of two appointees of the Governor of each of the seven states in the Colorado River Basin. At the time of the recent Mexican negotiations the Chairman was Hon. Wesley Steiner, of Arizona. Regarding negotiation of water treaty, see article by Charles A. Timm, 10 DEPT. STATE BULL., 288-92 (1944).

8 47 DEPT. STATE BULL. 137 (1962).

9 21 UST 2478, 2481; TIAS No. 6988.

10 Ibid.

11 67 DEPT. STATE BULL. 66 (1972).

12 Id., 197-99.

13 3 UN R.I.A.A. 1905.

14 "Salt balance" envisages a situation in which, in effect, the same tonnage of salt would be returned to the river in the effluent from the District as was contained in the diversion to the District. The effluent is usually more saline because of the smaller amount of water returned.

15 Interior Department Document released by the Bureau of Reclamation, entitled Colorado River Water Quality Improvement Program, February 1972.

16 Ibid.

17 S. 1807; H.R. 7774.

18 Hearings on H.R. 12165 and Related Bills before the Subcomm. on Water and Power Resources of the House Coram, on Interior, 91st Cong. 1st Sess. 75 (1973).

19 Id. at 175 et seq.

20 These deliveries accounted for approximately 140,000 of the 1,500,000 acre-feet to be delivered annually to Mexico under the 1944 Treaty. See letter, Department of State and Department of the Interior to Speaker of the House, Hearings, 61.

21 See note 29. The requirement of notification of contemplated works which might adversely affect the other country is consistent with the recommendation contained in Article XXIX, paragraphs 1 and 2, of "The Helsinki Rules" on the Uses of the Waters of International Rivers, adopted by the International Law Association in 1966, Report of the Fifty-Second Conference held at Helsinki, 1966, at 484, 518 (1967). (The Helsinki Rules have never been presented to governments for approval or adoption, and thus have no formal legal stature.) See also the obligation to give notice incorporated in the Montevideo Declaration on Industrial and Agricultural Use of International Rivers, Art. 7, in Seventh International Conference of American States, Final Act 113 at 114 (1933), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the International Conferences of the American States, First Supplement, 1933-40, 88 at 89 (1940).

22 See note 2, §§ 103, 108.

23 See note 29 for citation to text of Final Agreement.

24 They argued that internal U.S. legislation and court decisions had allocated to the individual Basin States all Colorado River water above treaty volume requirements, and that the Federal Government could not use "their" water to settle the salinity issue.

25 67 DEPT. STATE BULL. 307 (1972).

26 Classified document in files of Department of State and Department of the Interior.

27 Report of Herbert Brownell reprinted in Hearings on S. 1807, S. 2940, and S. 3094 before the Subcomm. on Water and Power Resources of the Senate Comm. on Interior and Insular Affairs, 91st Cong. 1st Sess. 139-75 (1973).

28 68 DEPT. STATE BULL. 905 (1973).

29 The full text of the Agreement is set forth as Minute No. 242, International Boundary and Water Commission. TIAS No. 7708; 68 AJIL 376 (1974); 12 ILM 1105 (1973).

30 Phreatophytes generally are plants that depend for their water supply on the groundwater that lies within reach of their roots. More than 70 water-loving trees, shrubs, and other plants have been so classified. The water they use and return to the atmosphere, without substantial economic benefit to man, is regarded as consumptive waste.

31 Two environmental statements were prepared and eventually released. The Department of State prepared one, with the assistance primarily of the Interior Department, in conjunction with the study of all possible options for a solution. It was released after the conclusion of the negotiations with Mexico. The Department of the Interior prepared a statement dealing exclusively with the salinity control project ultimately adopted. It too has been released for public comment.

32 Department of State and Department of the Interior to the Speaker of the House, Hearings, supra note 18, at 56.

33 Supra, note 14.

34 Supra, note 29.

35 Supra, note 4.