Monday, July 11, 2005
Mexico claims right to California’s
water
By Barnard R. Thompson
Given the success of elected Hispanic members of
the California state legislature, in climbing into bed with federal Members of Congress in Mexico, their counterparts are
now hoping to take advantage of the romance. This as the Mexican congresspersons
try to parlay the rapport and, by extension, cement relationships in the executive branch of government as they single out
California’s Lieutenant Governor, Cruz Bustamante.
Bustamante was in Mexico City in late June, ostensibly
to sign an agreement creating the California-Mexico Business Forum. The Forum
is a partnership designed to promote trade, environmentally sustainable economic development and social progress between Mexico
and California, all of special interest to the Lieutenant Governor as he chairs the California Commission for Economic Development.
But politics were also on his agenda.
Bustamante included a visit to the Chamber of Deputies
on his schedule, where among others he met with Fernando Ulises Adame de León. Adame,
a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), chairs the Chamber’s Water Resources Committee.
According to news reports, Adame took the opportunity
to tell Bustamante of Mexico’s “great concern” due to the relining of the All American Canal in California’s
Imperial Valley, calling the project “a death threat” for the Mexicali Valley.
“The relining of the All American Canal hurts
us, it represents a loss for our country of many millions of cubic meters (of water), and possibilities of livelihood for
many thousands of Mexicans on the border,” Adame said. He also claimed,
if the relining of the canal — that is scheduled to begin this month — is completed the Mexicali Valley might
only survive six months, the daily El Universal reported.
And Adame asked Bustamante to intervene on Mexico’s
behalf with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Imperial and Mexicali valleys are actually part
of a single desert region, geopolitically contiguous only because of the international border.
And both are highly important agricultural zones, thanks to canals from the Colorado River — with the 80-mile
All American Canal on the U.S. side of the border making the Imperial Valley one of the most productive farm areas in the
world. Mexico has its own water delivery systems.
The All American Canal went into service in
1944, with the water supply and amounts to user states authorized by applicable governing agencies. Regarding Mexico, the binational Water Treaty of 1944 commits the U.S. to deliver a yearly volume of 1.5 million-acre-feet of water from the Colorado
River.
But that 1.5 million-acre-feet are not really in dispute, in spite of what spokespersons
and advocates siding with Mexico may say. The water in question is that lost
to seepage, water that over a stretch of porous canal parallel to the border streams south into aquifers on the Mexican side
of the international boundary.
Water then used by Mexicali Valley farmers, water that is not part of the annual Treaty
of 1944 allocation.
Because of the seepage loss, and the resulting costs to Imperial Valley agroindustry
and other users, the Imperial Irrigation District (that operates the canal) now plans to line some 23 miles of the leaky canal. As well, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has plans to build a parallel canal to the
All American Canal, which would also reduce seepage.
And this is what has people from Mexicali up in arms.
Mexican officials and representatives complain that the projects are in violation of
the Treaty of 1944, as well as International Boundary and Water Commission Minute No. 242 that was signed in 1973. These are part of emphatic claims that Mexico has a legal right to the seepage water, or an equivalent
amount, and that the U.S. is obligated to negotiate the matter.
Thus, 60 day notice for the filing of a suit against the U.S. government to at least
stop the parallel canal project, by Mexicali area entities and U.S.-based NGOs, was given on May 17, 2005, according to an
article titled “Burgeoning ‘Theft’” in the June 12 edition of Proceso magazine.
Conversely, according to the Los Angeles Times (May 4, 2002), “The U.S.
State Department and an international body meant to settle water disputes between the U.S. and Mexico have said California
is legally entitled to line the canal.”
Whatever, when Adame met with Bustamante the Mexican Deputy asked the Lieutenant
Governor for assistance with Governor Schwarzenegger. Bustamante was asked to
use his good offices to establish a dialogue, and to lobby on behalf of Mexico so as “to reach a joint understanding
in order to prevent the relining of the All American Canal.”
Barnard Thompson, a consultant, is also editor of
MexiData.info. He can be reached via e-mail at mexidata@ix.netcom.com.
