Minute 319: a cooperative approach to Mexico–US hydro-relations on the Colorado River

Abstract

Minute 319 is the most recent amendment to the 1944 treaty governing the Colorado River, shared between Mexico and the United States. The amendment was adopted, in part, as a continuing response to the 2010 Mexicali earthquake, which severely damaged Mexican irrigation infrastructure, as well as ongoing objectives to address dwindling water supplies in the basin. By implementing measures to share both shortages and surpluses, and by facilitating long-term collaborative efforts that engender interdependencies, the amendment commits the parties to cooperate and may serve as a model for other regions sharing limited transboundary freshwater resources.

Keywords:

• water governance
• international
• transboundary river
• cooperation
• Colorado River
• United States-Mexico

Notes

1. Each of the two sections of the Commission is administered independently and is directed by an engineer-commissioner, who is appointed by the president of the country to which the section pertains. The American section, called the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, is an agency of the US government, headquartered in El Paso, Texas, and operates under the foreign policy guidance of the US Department of State. The Mexican Section – the Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas – is under the administrative supervision of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is headquartered in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Additional information about the sections is available on the Commission’s websites at http://www.ibwc.state.gov (English) and http://www.sre.gob.mx/cilanorte/index.php/home (Spanish).

2. An acre-foot of water is the amount of water needed to cover one acre of surface area to a depth of one foot. An acre is approximately 0.4 hectares.

3. Other minutes addressing water deliveries include 185, 188, 189, 191, 194, 195, 197, 208, 209, 211, 221, 240, 243, 246, 252, 256, 259, 260, 263, 266, 267, 280 and 287.

4. See for example Reisner, M. (1993). Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (rev. ed.). New York: Penguin Group; Hundley, Jr., N. (2009). Water and the West: The Colorado River Compact and the Politics of Water in the American West (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: University of California Press; Worster, D. (1992). Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West. New York: Pantheon Books; Grace, S. (2012). Dam Nation: How Water Shaped the West and Will Determine Its Future. Guilford: Globe Pequot Press.

5. The Colorado River Delta Water Trust was created in 2008 by the Sonoran Institute, Pronatura Noroeste and the Environmental Defense Fund. The trust’s efforts have been funded by foundation support in the past, but the entity has made efforts to innovate and expand its funding mechanisms. In 2013, the trust began working with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to use water restoration certificates to fund water conservation projects in hope of restoring approximately 39 million gallons per year to help the delta (Bennett, 2013; Bonneville Environmental Foundation, 2013).

6. The Raise the River campaign includes the three founding members of the Delta Water Trust, as well as the Nature Conservancy, the Redford Center, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.