U.S. Water News Online
AUSTIN -- Heavy rainfall in northern Mexico has resulted in fresh water flows into reservoirs that could allow Mexico to make substantial payments on its water debt to the United States, according to a new Texas report.
Figures from the International Boundary and Water Commission show that Mexican water storage as of Oct. 22 totaled 4.3 million acre feet, the largest storage volume the country has held in the Rio Grande Basin in more than a decade.
``More than one million acre feet of inflows reached Mexican storage during the first three weeks of October following the conclusion of the 2003 irrigation season and water-year,'' the report states.
The Center for Space Research at the University of Texas at Austin prepared the report for state Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs. Her office made a copy of the report available.
Combs has pressed repeatedly for Mexico to pay the water it owes the United States under a 1944 water-sharing treaty. She says the water is needed to help South Texas farmers. The treaty stipulates that the United States and Mexico share water from the Rio Grande and Colorado River.
Mexico has said it has met its obligations under the treaty during President Vicente Fox's administration by delivering the minimum annual average required under the treaty.
As of mid-October, Mexico owed the United States 1.35 million acre feet of water, according to the report.
Heavy October rainfall in Mexico was generated by the disintegration of hurricanes Olaf and Nora, followed by the formation of a persistent low-pressure system over northeastern Mexico and South Texas. That system triggered days of widespread flooding in the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, the report states.
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