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Lower Rio Grande Project Operating Agreement: Settlement of Litigation SURFACE WATER OPPORTUNITIES IN NEW MEXICO 2008 OCTOBER NEW MEXICO WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE Filiberto (Bert) Cortez, a native of El Paso, Texas, attended Bel Air High school and served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War era. While completing a B.S. in civil engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso, he began working for the Rio Grande Project, Bureau of Reclamation, and upon graduation worked as a staff engineer with the Project. Over the course of his career he has held various positions in the El Paso office, which include design engineer, hydraulic engineer, safety engineer, information resources coordinator, and planning engineer. Bert is now the manager of the El Paso office, which manages the water supplies for the Rio Grande Project. He is the principal Reclamation representative in various negotiations on water operations procedures, water rights adjudications, negotiation conversions of irrigation water to municipal and industrial water use, and resolution of environmental issues. Lower Rio Grande Project Operating Agreement: Settlement of Litigation Filiberto Cortez Bureau of Reclamation 10737 Gateway West, Suite 350 El Paso, TX 79935 I want to start off by thanking WRRI for inviting me dore Roosevelt recognized the flood/drought reality to speak at this conference. The people here are at the and supported the establishment of the U.S. Reclama- top of the water industry and I appreciate being includ- tion Services. As somebody mentioned earlier, we were ed with them. I was looking forward to the conference originally part of the Geological Services, so we come because I was going to be last on the agenda and I was from the same agency but were separated out. Our assured there wasn’t going to be time for rebuttal. But initial mission was to capture the springtime floods then I found out that Gary and Chuy were conspiring from snowmelt runoff and store for the benefit of set- against me for me to go first, so I almost lost my train tlers, ranchers, and farmers in the arid West. The sign of thought but I will go on with my presentation. A lot in Figure 1 says something like “thank God and U.S. of it will be repetitive but I find you have to hear some- Reclamation.” thing at least three times before you really understand it. The Upper Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin experienced early agricultural development under Native American I want to start out by giving a little bit of the history of Pueblos that to this day exercise their water rights in the Project. We had a very good introduction to that northern New Mexico. The basin underwent a rapid yesterday during lunch when we heard about how we period of development during the Spanish Colonial got where we are. We have droughts, floods, and not period, but for the most part, rapid development and just in the Rio Grande Project. These are common in diversion of the Rio Grande for agricultural purposes the western United States, which was the reason Theo- occurred after the construction of railroads into 1 Filiberto Cortz in said waters.” I might mention that we don’t even call the river by the same name; depending on where you are located, we refer to it as the Rio Grande on the U.S. side and Rio Bravo on the Mexican side. It is the Upper Rio Grande in Texas, Lower Rio Grande if we are in New Mexico. The Joint Commission on November 25, 1896 found that development of irrigated acreage in the San Luis Valley of Colorado had depleted the flow. Construc- tion of a reservoir to capture the flood waters of the Rio Grande would provide the best and most feasible mode of affecting an equitable distribution. It further recommended that the United States prevent the con- struction of any large reservoirs on the Rio Grande in New Mexico or restrain any such reservoir hereafter constructed from the use of waters to which the citi- Figure 1. Western farmers and ranchers benefitted by the zens of the El Paso and Juarez Valleys had right. Basi- establishment of the U.S. Reclamation Services. cally, this established the senior right on the river at El Paso and Juarez. the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado between 1860 and 1890, when about 400,000 acres of land were On December 5, 1896, the Secretary of Interior sus- converted into agricultural development. This agricul- pended all applications for right of way for irrigation tural development had an adverse impact on the flow in New Mexico and Colorado. It remained that way of the river in the El Paso Valley. One of the first indi- until 1925. While it was in effect, the development of cations of water supply problems was recorded in an of- storage facilities was prohibited. The objections by up- ficial report from Major O.H. Ernst, U.S. Army Corps stream states were the impetus that led to the negotia- of Engineers, to the Chief of Engineers in 1889, basi- tion of the Rio Grande Compact. cally saying that “At El Paso, … the water ceases to flow and except at detached pools the bed becomes entirely The 1904 Compromise of the 12th International Irriga- dry. The diminished flow is probably due to evapora- tion Congress was to find a solution and suggested the tion and to the abstraction of portions of [the river] for Reclamation Act of 1902, from which the Reclamation irrigation purposes. In my judgment, the stream is not Services was created, be enacted or authorized. It was worthy of improvement by the General Government.” to provide an interstate and international solution. In I think that thought permeates throughout the hun- November 1904, the Reclamation Service presented a dred-year history of the Project. compromise at the 12th International Irrigation Con- gress held in El Paso, Texas. Reclamation presented Comparatively, when we look at the flows of other plans for the Rio Grande Project, which stored waters major western rivers, we see 150 million acre-feet on at Elephant Butte Reservoir and supplied southern the Columbia River, which is 10 times the Colorado New Mexico, West Texas, and the Juarez Valley. River at 15 million acre-feet, which is 15 times the Rio Grande at 1 million acre-feet. The United States So what is the Rio Grande Project? It was constructed Congress passed a resolution on April 29, 1890 call- by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, an agency under ing on the President of the United States to negotiate the Department of Interior. It was authorized by the with Mexico to settle the international aspects of the passing of the Reclamation Act of 1902 by Congress. Rio Grande. In 1894, Mexico formally complained to It was the first civil engineering work to affect interna- the Secretary of Agriculture that increased diversions tional allocation of water between the United States in the state of Colorado were causing damages to the and Mexico. In 1907, Congress appropriated $1mil- farms in the Juarez Valley. So in 1896, Mexico and the lion to start project construction which would provide United States agreed to a joint commission to inves- 60,000 acre-feet of water annually to Mexico. tigate the water resources of the Upper Rio Grande/ Rio Bravo and report on the “best and most feasible Figure 2 is a map showing the project; Truth or Conse- mode…of regulating the use of the waters of said river quences is where Elephant Butte Reservoir is located, as to assure to each country concerned and to its in- and right below is Caballo Reservoir, constructed in habitants their legal and equitable rights and interests the mid 1930s. Percha Dam is our first diversion point 2 Lower Rio Grande Project Operating Agreement: Settlement of Litigation that irrigates the Rincon Valley. Leasburg Diversion Dam is our next diversion point that irrigates the up- per portion of the Mesilla Valley; the Mesilla Diversion Dam irrigates the lower portion of the Mesilla Valley. Then we have the American Diver- sion Dam that irrigates the upper portion of the El Paso Valley and Riverside Diversion Dam that actu- ally no longer exists but was built to irrigate the lower portion of the El Paso Valley. The water is diverted to Mexico at the International Diver- sion Dam. That is where they get their 60,000 acre-ft under a full al- location. As stated before, we irrigate about 178,000 acres of land and supple- mental hydroelectric power to south- central New Mexico. The Project features are Elephant Butte and Caballo storage dams, four diver- Figure 2. Rio Grande Project area. sion dams, 586 miles of canals and laterals, 484 miles of open drainage ditches, and a hy- the Project was authorized in 1905, it was strictly for dro-electric plant. Water provided by the Rio Grande, irrigation. There were no other uses of the Rio Grande along with improved irrigation methods, has trans- Project water supply until 1925 with the Municipal formed the desert land in the valley into a productive Water Users Act that enabled us to go and provide the region. City of El Paso with water and then for other uses that were authorized under that Act. When we first sent astronauts up to circle the earth, one of the man-made features they could readily dis- The Project provides for flood control, fish and wildlife cern was the Rio Grande Valley, the Rio Grande Proj- enhancement, outdoor recreation, research on water- ect, and its irrigated acreage.

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