University of Texas at El Paso DigitalCommons@UTEP Open Access Theses & Dissertations 2016-01-01 Constructing a River, Building a Border: An Environmental History of Irrigation, Water Law, State Formation, and the Rio Grande Rectification Project in the El Paso/Juárez Valley Joanne Kropp University of Texas at El Paso, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd Part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, History Commons, and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Kropp, Joanne, "Constructing a River, Building a Border: An Environmental History of Irrigation, Water Law, State Formation, and the Rio Grande Rectification Project in the El Paso/Juárez Valley" (2016). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 678. https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd/678 This is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CONSTRUCTING A RIVER, BUILDING A BORDER: AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF IRRIGATION, WATER LAW, STATE FORMATION, AND THE RIO GRANDE RECTIFICATION PROJECT IN THE EL PASO/JUÁREZ VALLEY JOANNE TORTORETE KROPP Doctoral Program in Borderlands History APPROVED: Samuel Brunk, Ph.D., Chair Jeffery P. Shepherd, Ph.D. Ann R. Gabbert, Ph.D Timothy Collins, Ph.D. Charles Ambler, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School Copyright © by Joanne Tortorete Kropp 2016 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family and friends. I could never have completed this work without the constant support and encouragement provided by my wonderful husband, my amazing children, and my beautiful grandchildren. My many friends cheered me on through the process and helped keep me on the path to completion. I am grateful to have been blessed with such a marvelous family and group of friends. CONSTRUCTING A RIVER, BUILDING A BORDER: AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF IRRIGATION, WATER LAW, STATE FORMATION, AND THE RIO GRANDE RECTIFICATION PROJECT IN THE EL PASO/JUÁREZ VALLEY by JOANNE TORTORETE KROPP, BA., MA. DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at El Paso in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO December 2016 Acknowledgements I owe a debt of gratitude to the many, many people who helped me with this project. I was very fortunate to have an excellent dissertation committee, First, I am deeply grateful to my chairperson, Sam Brunk, for working so tirelessly with me on this project. His insights, suggestions, and critical questions caused me to think more deeply about my ideas and explore angles I had not previously considered. Furthermore, he was a constant source of encouragement and good cheer. Second, I would like to thank Ann Gabbert for her close reading of this work, catching many errors and helping tremendously with some organization problems. She too was a source of support, as a friend, a colleague, and a mentor. Third, I appreciate the suggestions and advice provided by Jeff Shepherd, who not only had many ideas for this work but also helped me to navigate the process of graduating. Last, but hardly least, I would like to thank Tim Collins for stepping in as my outside reader and enthusiastically offering helpful comments and ideas. The four of them did a wonderful job of helping to shape this work, but all of the remaining errors are my own. I would never have reached this point if not for all of the outstanding professors in the Department of History, who taught me so much over the years. Sam Brunk graciously agreed to work with me in an Independent Readings course, and we read numerous works in the field of Environmental History. That was the beginning of my project and his involvement in its progress. I had wonderful experiences in all of my coursework, and wish to thank Cheryl Martin, Sandy McGee-Deutsch, Yolanda Leyva, Paul Edison, Ernesto Chavez, Ron Weber, Carl Jackson, Charles Martin, Sandra Harding, and Kenneth Shover for introducing me to outstanding books, teaching me how to think historically, and striving to improve my writing skills. In v addition, I want to thank the ladies who keep the department functioning smoothly, Edith Yanez, and her assistant Clara Giroux. I also had the good fortune to work with many helpful archivists, especially Claudia Rivers and Abbie Weiser in the UTEP Library Special Collections Department. I met many great people in the six archives I visited, but would like to especially thank Rodney Krajca at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Ft. Worth, Texas, and Marene Baker at NARA, Denver, Colorado. Michael Tarabulski, archivist at the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), El Paso, was very helpful as well, as was Albert Flores, IBWC Environmental Protection Specialist, who graciously gave me a tour of the American Dam and Canal. I also wish to thank my supervisor, Dorothy Ward. She recognized the difficulties associated with working full-time and attending graduate school and did everything she could to support me. My colleagues in the Entering Student Program also encouraged me to keep going and stepped in to cover tasks I could not complete due to working on this project, especially Daniel Duarte and Beau Pihlaja. Thanks again to everyone who made this dissertation possible. vi Abstract The Rio Grande in the El Paso, Texas, U.S./Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, Valley has a long history of human use from prehistoric to modern times. Formal irrigation began in the 1600s, mainly for viticulture, changing to cotton and pecans in the 1900s. The Rio Grande was subject to bed shifting and flooding that, after 1848, affected the location of the international boundary. During the Great Depression the U.S. and Mexican governments sponsored conservation projects to provide jobs and increase agricultural production. The 1933 “Convention - Rectification of the Rio Grande” was the culmination of interstate and bi-national agreements to divide Rio Grande water between the U.S. and Mexico and prevent flooding in the valley. The Civilian Conservation Corps assisted with flood control and soil conservation work as part of the project, and symbolizes how conservation in the 1930s melded environmentalism, nationalism, and prevalent ideas about masculinity. Rectification permanently established the U.S.–Mexico border in the valley, improved irrigation and flood control, and increased agricultural acreage along the river, but led to soil salinization, water pollution, and strained a dwindling water supply. The Rio Grande Rectification Project was a rare instance of bi-national cooperation in an otherwise acrimonious relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. The environmental impact of the project led to further bi-national collaboration on environmental sustainability and infrastructure in the late twentieth century that continues today. vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................v Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Rio Grande Ecology, Human Settlement, and Water Law to 1848 .............................27 Chapter 2: Rio Grande Flooding, Meandering, and an Uncertain International Boundary Line...69 Chapter 3: Environmentalism, Water Law, and State Formation - Controlling the Rio Grande in the El Paso/Juárez Valley ...............................................................................................126 Chapter 4: Constructing the Rio Grande - The International Boundary Commission, Labor, Relief, and the Rio Grande Rectification Project ................................................................193 Chapter 5: The Civilian Conservation Corps, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the Rio Grande Rectification Project ...............................................................................................240 Chapter 6: The Constructed Rio Grande – Political and Environmental Impacts .......................282 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................318 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................325 Appendix ......................................................................................................................................358 Vita… ...........................................................................................................................................380 viii Introduction “The river that flows past Mount Cristo Rey and through the Pass has little resemblance to the mighty stream that welcomed Juan de Oñate’s party in 1598, a stream so deep and turbulent that two of the company’s horses were drowned in their frantic efforts to get a drink. In contrast, I recall the visit of a favorite niece to El Paso some years ago. One of the first