The Mexican Water Treaty of 1944 committed the U.S. to deliver
1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico on an annual basis, plus
an additional 200,000 acre-feet under surplus conditions. The
treaty is overseen by the International Boundary and Water
Commission.
Colorado River water is delivered to Mexico at Morelos Dam,
located 1.1 miles downstream from where the California-Baja
California land boundary intersects the river. The river’s
natural terminus is the Gulf of California in Mexico, but because
of the dams and diversion facilities throughout the Colorado
River Basin, natural flow rarely reaches the Gulf. Water diverted
at Morelos Dam is primarily used to irrigate Mexicali Valley
farmland, and also supplies the cities of Mexicali, Tecate and
Tijuana.
Imperial Beach leaders want the federal government to take
stronger action in the ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis by
accelerating its construction projects and pressuring Mexico
with punitive action, if necessary. That pressure could include
limiting border crossings and sales of potable water to Tijuana
during county-declared public health threats. … Imperial
Beach’s resolution asks Congress to expedite the rehabilitation
and expansion of the South Bay International Wastewater
Treatment Plant (SBIWTP), a $600 million project overseen by
the US International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). It
also suggests the federal government take punitive action
against Mexico, if necessary. It notes that 90 percent of
Tijuana’s imported water comes from the Colorado
River, underscoring the city’s dependence on its 1944
United States-Mexico Water Treaty, and says Mexico has shown
“persistent noncompliance” in the treaty terms, causing the
ongoing wastewater pollution.
Mexican diplomats say climate change has hindered them from
settling a massive water debt to the United States, which is
bringing economic hardship to South Texas farmers. But a former
U.S. federal official on Thursday offered a different
explanation. “One of the issues that we see is that
domestic problems in Mexico are affecting what’s happening in
the United States,” said Maria Elena Giner. “Water is owned by
the (Mexican) government, yet they really don’t have good
control of the reservoirs. The states are becoming much more
active in opposing any water deliveries.” … Giner, who
has followed Mexican politics since the Carlos Salinas de
Gortari administration of 1988-1994, said Mexico has invested
in developing agriculture but not in making water management
more efficient.
Every year, billions of gallons of sewage and toxic industrial
waste flow down the Tijuana River, across the U.S.-Mexico
border, and into the Pacific Ocean. It is a complex,
decades-old, transjurisdictional issue that environmentalists
and governments at the local, state, and federal level have
been grappling with for years. Recently, entities on both sides
of the border have made some progress, but experts agree that
more has to be done to address the international pollution
crisis. But viewers watching Fox News would have scant
understanding of the complexity of this issue, the shared
responsibility for its resolution, or the progress that has
been made in both the U.S. and Mexico. According to Fox and new
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, the issue is simple: Mexico is to
blame.
Last week, I sat down with Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lee Zeldin for a roundtable focused on a crisis
that’s poisoned our coastlines for decades: the relentless
dumping of toxic sewage from Mexico into Southern California’s
waters. This wasn’t another meeting about more studies, more
delays, or more bureaucratic finger-pointing. It was about one
thing: action. I told Administrator Zeldin what so many San
Diegans already know: this isn’t just an environmental disaster
— it’s a national security threat. When our Navy SEALs — the
elite warriors of our military — are forced to abandon training
operations due to contaminated waters, we have crossed a line.
When our families can’t enjoy our beaches without the risk of
serious illness, something is fundamentally broken. The good
news? Your voices are being heard. –Written by Jim Desmond, member of the San Diego County
Board of Supervisors.
Each day, the Tijuana River carries millions—and sometimes
billions—of gallons of sewage across the U.S.-Mexico border
into California, where it dumps into the ocean. This wave of
waste frequently overwhelms wastewater treatment plants in both
countries, fueling a public health and environmental crisis in
nearby San Diego communities. The problem has gotten worse in
recent years as budget-strapped infrastructure deteriorates and
climate change fuels increasingly intense storms. Last
week, the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Lee
Zeldin, visited San Diego County to urge a “100 percent
solution” from Mexico and the U.S. for ending the flow of
untreated wastewater. He told reporters that a meeting with
Mexico officials went well but stressed that the U.S. is “all
out of patience.”
Mexico has agreed to send water to the United States and
temporarily channel more water to the country from their shared
rivers, a concession that appeared to defuse a diplomatic
crisis sparked by yearslong shortages that left Mexico behind
on its treaty-bound contribution of water from the borderlands.
… In a social media post, Mr. Trump accused Mexico of
“stealing” water from Texas farmers by not meeting its
obligations under a 1944 treaty that mediates the distribution
of water from three rivers the two countries share: the
Rio Grande, the Colorado and the Tijuana. In an
agreement announced jointly by Mexico and the United States on
Monday, Mexico will immediately transfer some of its water
reserves and will give the country a larger share of the flow
of water from the Rio Grande through October.
Turns out there’s a lot more than sewage polluting our rivers,
oceans and air, according to scientists who study the
cross-border sewage crisis. More than 175 toxic chemicals have
been found in water samples collected from the Tijuana River
Valley, according to Dr. Paula Stigler Granados, who spoke at
the Coronado High School Stop the Sewage Health Forum on
Wednesday. … She said that out of the 392 chemicals found in
samples, 224 appear on a regulatory list, and 175 appear in the
EPA Toxic Substance list. In addition, many of the chemicals
are what scientists call an “emerging concern,” which means no
one knows just how toxic they are yet. … This includes
everything from pharmaceutical drugs like anesthetics to
illegal drugs like cocaine and meth, according to a list shared
at the meeting.
The EPA’s visit to the South Bay to see the sewage crisis
firsthand is something both the U.S. and Mexican governments
are calling productive, vowing together to finally accelerate a
plan to solve the problem affecting people for decades. …
(Alicia) Bàrcena (the Mexican Secretary of the Environment and
Natural Resources) says Mexico has made an enormous effort on
its part, stating that it has just finished construction on the
San Antonio de Los Buenos wastewater treatment plant in
Tijuana. She says that was a $38 million investment that will
allow for more than 800 liters of wastewater to be treated per
second. … Bàrcena also says Mexico will prioritize
redirecting treated water from two plants in Tijuana to a dam
to avoid its discharge into the Tijuana River.
The Trump administration and Mexican officials had a positive
meeting Monday night on addressing sewage flowing into
California and are developing plans to address the decades-old
issue, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday. Zeldin,
speaking at the Marine Corps base in San Diego, said he had a
90-minute conversation with Mexican Environment Secretary
Alicia Bárcena and both sides agreed to collaborate on steps to
repair and upgrade an international sewage treatment plant that
cleanses Mexican wastewater before it enters the United States.
… Major infrastructure upgrades agreed on in 2018 and funded
through the U.S.-Mexico trade agreement negotiated by Trump
during his first term aren’t yet finished, allowing billions of
gallons of raw sewage to reach the Tijuana River Valley and
eventually the ocean.
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday
that Mexico must stop the flow of billions of gallons of sewage
and toxic chemicals from Tijuana that has polluted the Pacific
Ocean off neighboring Southern California, closing beaches and
sickening Navy SEALs who train in the water. Lee Zeldin made
the demand during an Earth Day trip to the California-Mexico
border, where he toured a plant in San Diego County that treats
the sewage as a secondary facility and flew along the frontier
to see the Tijuana River. He also was scheduled to meet with
SEALs. Zeldin said that in the next day or so, his agency will
present Mexico a to-do list of projects to resolve the
decades-long environmental crisis, but he stopped short of
specifying how the Trump administration would hold Mexico
accountable if it does not act.
The Trump administration on Monday demanded the resignation of
the top federal official overseeing a dispute between the
United States and Mexico over untreated sewage flowing across
the border into California. Maria-Elena Giner, who leads
the International Boundary and Water Commission, said in an
interview Monday that White House officials asked her to resign
by the end of the day and threatened to fire her
otherwise. The commission plays a crucial role in
navigating cross-border water conflicts, including the
[Colorado River], ongoing sewage crisis facing coastal
California communities and dwindling water deliveries to
farmers in South Texas.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday denied reports
that Mexico had capitulated to U.S. demands for immediate water
deliveries required by a 1944 treaty that allocates surface
water along their shared border. One of the reports, published
by the Mexican newspaper Reforma, stated that the Coahuila dam
“La Amistad” had increased its extractions by
600%. Calling the published reports “false,” Sheinbaum
said her administration is negotiating with northern states to
send more water to the U.S. while recognizing that pervasive
drought conditions have made it impossible to keep up with
deliveries. “Talks are underway with the governors of
Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Chihuahua to reach a joint agreement
to determine how much water can be delivered … without
affecting Mexican producers, while also complying with the 1944
treaty,” Sheinbaum said at her daily press conference.
Officials are monitoring reports from the San Diego County Air
Pollution Control District of an overnight uptick in hydrogen
sulfide readings in the Tijuana River Valley, creating odor
issues in South County. The increase in odors in the last 24
hours “appears to be associated with reports from the
(International Boundary and Water Commission) that sewage
infrastructure work in Mexico has resulted in the release of up
to 5 million gallons per night of sewage into the Tijuana River
Valley,” according to the county. This flow comes in addition
to “rogue sewage flows” being investigated by the IBWC with its
partners in Mexico. The IBWC operates the South Bay
International Wastewater Treatment Plant and is tasked with
collaborating with Mexico on border water issues.
Hours after President Donald Trump threatened Mexico with
additional tariffs over a massive water debt, that country’s
president publicly vowed to make a substantial payment soon.
Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico must send 1.75 million acre-feet of
water to the U.S. from the Rio Grande every five years, and the
United States is to pay Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet of water
annually via the Colorado River out West. The
current five-year cycle ends in October and Mexico, so far, has
paid only 512,604 acre-feet of water to the United States —
about one-third of what it owes — according to the latest IBWC
data published Friday. … On Friday morning, Mexican President
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said her country doesn’t have enough
water to give to the United States but will make payments.
San Diego officials say Mexico is continuing to release
millions of gallons per day of raw sewage into the city’s
waters despite its promises to end the flow that has sickened
Navy SEALs and San Diego residents. “Mexico just dumped 6
million gallons of sewage into the Tijuana River — after
promising they wouldn’t,” said San Diego County Supervisor Jim
Desmond on X today (Apr. 11). “We are at the mercy of a foreign
government that continues to pollute our waters — while we get
stuck with the consequences.” Desmond also said Navy SEAL
training is often being shifted farther north in San Diego from
Coronado, where the training typically takes place, due to the
high volume of waterborne illness caused by fecal and bacterial
contamination.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened Mexico with
sanctions and tariffs in a dispute over water sharing between
the two countries, accusing Mexico of breaking an 81-year-old
treaty and “stealing the water from Texas Farmers.” Under the
1944 treaty, Mexico must send 1.75 million acre-feet of water
to the U.S. from the Rio Grande through a network of
interconnected dams and reservoirs every five years.
… The treaty also requires that the U.S. deliver 1.5
million acre-feet of water annually to Mexico from the
Colorado River, an obligation that the U.S.
has largely fulfilled, although recent deliveries have been
reduced due to severe drought, something the 1944 accord allows
for. While Mexico sends far less water to the U.S., it has
struggled to fulfill its end of the bargain due to a
combination of factors including droughts, poor infrastructure
and growing local demand.
Mexico is diverting untreated wastewater into the Tijuana River
as it works to repair its faulty sewage infrastructure. About
five million gallons per day (MGD) have been diverted since
April 8 as Mexico repairs a critical junction box that is a
part of its International Collector project. The junction box
must be dried so it can be rebuilt with reinforced concrete. On
Wednesday, Mexico shut off the water supply to a portion of
Tijuana for other projects, which eliminated the need to divert
wastewater into the Tijuana River. Because of that, the average
daily impact has been three million gallons per day, according
to Maria-Elena Giner, commissioner for the U.S. section of the
International Boundary and Water Commission. To help remove as
much wastewater as possible from the river, Mexico is working
to activate its PBCILA lift station, which is usually turned
off during the dry season. It is expected to be operational by
Sunday.
Learn the history and challenges facing the West’s most dramatic
and developed river.
The Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Basin introduces the
1,450-mile river that sustains 40 million people and millions of
acres of farmland spanning seven states and parts of northern
Mexico.
The 28-page primer explains how the river’s water is shared and
managed as the Southwest transitions to a hotter and drier
climate.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
Water is flowing once again
to the Colorado River’s delta in Mexico, a vast region that
was once a natural splendor before the iconic Western river was
dammed and diverted at the turn of the last century, essentially
turning the delta into a desert.
In 2012, the idea emerged that water could be intentionally sent
down the river to inundate the delta floodplain and regenerate
native cottonwood and willow trees, even in an overallocated
river system. Ultimately, dedicated flows of river water were
brokered under cooperative
efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
Nowhere is the domino effect in
Western water policy played out more than on the Colorado River,
and specifically when it involves the Lower Basin states of
California, Nevada and Arizona. We are seeing that play out now
as the three states strive to forge a Drought Contingency Plan.
Yet that plan can’t be finalized until Arizona finds a unifying
voice between its major water players, an effort you can read
more about in the latest in-depth article of Western Water.
Even then, there are some issues to resolve just within
California.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the
Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is
first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan
for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors,
California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water
levels in Lake Mead before
they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by
320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1
million households in one year.
The Colorado River Delta once spanned nearly 2 million acres and
stretched from the northern tip of the Gulf of California in
Mexico to Southern California’s Salton Sea. Today it’s one-tenth
that size, yet still an important estuary, wildlife habitat and
farming region even though Colorado River flows rarely reach the
sea.
This issue of Western Water examines the ongoing effort
between the United States and Mexico to develop a
new agreement to the 1944 Treaty that will continue the
binational cooperation on constructing Colorado River
infrastructure, storing water in Lake Mead and providing instream
flows for the Colorado River Delta.
As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and
Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries
develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance
future competing needs.
The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban
areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective
supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was
signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically
added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that
aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important
water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.
California’s little-known New River has been called one of North
America’s most polluted. A closer look reveals the New River is
full of ironic twists: its pollution has long defied cleanup, yet
even in its degraded condition, the river is important to the
border economies of Mexicali and the Imperial Valley and a
lifeline that helps sustain the fragile Salton Sea ecosystem.
Now, after decades of inertia on its pollution problems, the New
River has emerged as an important test of binational cooperation
on border water issues. These issues were profiled in the 2004
PBS documentary Two Sides of a River.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch map, which is
suitable for framing, explains the river’s apportionment, history
and the need to adapt its management for urban growth and
expected climate change impacts.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
The Mexican Water Treaty of 1944 committed the U.S. to deliver
1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico on an annual basis, plus
an additional 200,000 acre-feet under surplus conditions. The
treaty is overseen by the International Boundary and Water
Commission.
Colorado River water is delivered to Mexico at Morelos Dam,
located 1.1 miles downstream from where the California-Baja
California land boundary intersects the river between the town of
Los Algodones in northwestern Mexico and Yuma County, Ariz.
The Colorado River Delta is located
at the natural terminus of the Colorado River at the Gulf of
California, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The desert
ecosystem was formed by silt flushed downstream from the Colorado
and fresh and brackish water mixing at the Gulf.
The Colorado River Delta once covered 9,650 square miles but has
shrunk to less than 1 percent of its original size due to
human-made water diversions.
This printed issue of Western Water examines how the various
stakeholders have begun working together to meet the planning
challenges for the Colorado River Basin, including agreements
with Mexico, increased use of conservation and water marketing,
and the goal of accomplishing binational environmental
restoration and water-sharing programs.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study and what its
finding might mean for the future of the lifeblood of the
Southwest.
This printed issue of Western Water explores some of the major
challenges facing Colorado River stakeholders: preparing for
climate change, forging U.S.-Mexico water supply solutions and
dealing with continued growth in the basins states. Much of the
content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth
panel discussions at the September 2009 Colorado River Symposium.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Colorado River
Delta, its ecological significance and the lengths to which
international, state and local efforts are targeted and achieving
environmental restoration while recognizing the needs of the
entire river’s many users.
