U.S. and Mexico Agree to Share in Colorado River Conservation

The United States and Mexico have agreed to update and extend a 2012 deal through which Americans invest millions of dollars in Mexican water conservation in exchange for a share of Mexico’s Colorado River water.

The deal spreads the costs of conservation and the pain of future droughts and shortages across the river’s millions of users north and south. The river supplies water to about 40 million Americans from Denver to Los Angeles.

Colorado river , Image source: Wikimedia Commons, Stan Shebs

Whenever drought forces the U.S. to impose cuts under a planned drought contingency plan, the International Boundary and Water Commission said Wednesday, Mexico will agree to cut its take of the river “in parity with U.S. savings."

'A path of cooperation rather than conflict'

The commission said officials from the two nations signed the agreement in a ceremony in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Wednesday. Under the deal, the U.S. government and Southwestern water users will invest up to $31.5 million in water delivery systems and farm efficiency upgrades south of the border.

In exchange, Mexico will parcel out a portion of its river allotment to various U.S. water agencies over nine years and will reduce the risk of shortages for all of the Southwest by storing some of its water in Lake Mead near Las Vegas.

“This agreement puts us on a path of cooperation rather than conflict as we work with Mexico to address the Colorado River Basin’s many challenges,” U.S. Commissioner Edward Drusina said in a statement.

Read full article: AZ Central

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Taxonomy

• Resource Management
• Water Resource Management
• River Studies
• Drought
• River Engineering
• River Restoration
• Water Management
• Water Resources Management
• River Engineering