Water Deal

Up before the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Senate last week was a treaty which would divide between Mexico and the U.S. the irrigation water of the Colorado River and the lower Rio Grande.

Seventy percent of the water in the lower Rio Grande originates in Mexico. She could dam up the tributaries, use the water on her own side of the border. But under the pending treaty Mexico agrees to give Texas approximately 800,000 acre-feet of water, keeping only about 600,000 acre-feet for herself.

In return, Mexico asks 1,500,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water, most of which originates in the U.S.

The treaty was sure to run into opposition in the U.S. Senate. California was bitterly opposed. Mexico's share was only a small fraction of the Colorado's water, but California farmers feared increased competition from Texas and Mexico. Much Mexican land on the lower Colorado was as productive (if irrigated) as California's famed Imperial Valley. It might compete with California's cotton and vegetable crop. South Texas raises high-grade citrus fruit and is closer than California to Eastern U.S. markets. California would like to stop that irrigation leak.

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