As seen in the pic, the Valley of Mexicali is a prolongation of the Imperial Valley and shares the waters of the Colorado River. For some reason the Imperial Valley appears much greener than the Mexicali Valley south of the border. However, the Arizona irrigated area is similar to its Mexican counterpart. The shining white areas may be salt. The City of Mexicali (a grey area on the border) has one million inhabitants and sends it wastewaters back to the Salton Sea in the USA through the New River. The Americans are lining all the canals which therefore will stop seeping water into underground currents towards the wells of the Mexicali Valley. The Americans are making efforts to start reducing irrigation water use, and they will not be happy watching how Mexicali wastes water. If they reduce drainage water infiltrating into the aquifer, which flows southwards, local wells will dry out. Devilishly complicated situation.
12 comments:
Yes, a bad situation. The All American Canal was literally cut through sand and it does lose water. The problem is the leaked water was pumped on the Mexican side of the border. Once re-lined the canal will have minimal losses. Also, the Drop 2 reservoir being built will minimize any excess water (water releases) in the system.
What makes this a terrible situation is that an economy was built on a 'false' resource. Kind of like using a neighbor's WiFi connection (for free), then complaining when he encrypts the signal. Sooner or later the leak gets properly fixed and water that was not present in the aquifer 'naturally', is now missing.
The US Gov't (BuRec) and IID become villains by fixing the problem and making an attempt to manage the resource more efficiently. As an engineer, you can appreciate the problem.
dg
Dear Mr Grady,
Thank you for your comment. I certainly appreciate the difficult situation. More than you imagine. We have a similar situation in the Gaza (Palestinian Authority) and Israel border area. It is also very permeable sand. The groundwater flows from Israel to Gaza and the sea. In order to reduce the fresh water lost to the sea, we have a chain of border boreholes, which are no longer being operated as to avoid creating the impression that we are somehow stealing our Palestinian neighbor's waters. Of course the Gazan people have done nothing to exploit these waters.
But I cannot believe your bureau could be blamed. These are decisions taken at a much higher level, at a political level, we engineers dont take this kind of decisions. And I am happy for it.
I asked my friends here and they blame, if blame it is called, the US judicial system that judged against the Mexican position. There is also awareness about the possibility that in case of a prolonged drought, everyone will suffer. I am sure that at the water engineer level, people will understand each under. I find Mexicans most reasonable.
Actually, the decisions came from the water districts. They are paying for the lining of the canal.
About the court case: Even with support from environmental groups, the case did not pan out too well. I'm sure that people in district 14 did not like the outcome.
It would be interesting to ask them how they would feel about the situation if it were reversed.
Please understand, nobody really won anything here. The California water districts are only trying to minimize their canal losses.
Legally, the lost water was allocated to users in California.
Not a popular decision - but a legal one.
dg
dg
Asking them how they would feel is pointless, because they feel that the situation is not symmetrical. Also, in their hearts, they dont believe it till they see it. Pumps are pumping up water and the canals are running full as they have doing ever, so you need imagination to foresee the future. Few of us has it, we are only too humans. Events tend to take us by surprise.
What would you advise Mexican district managers to improve their systems? Thanks in advance for your comments.
J:
Please do not take any offense in my comments. I only wanted to stress a point. The water leaked by the canal is artificially charging the aquifer. The water is part of someone's allocation in California. They are fixing the problem to deliver the resource to the rightful end user.
It's unrealistic to think that the All American Canal would remain to be a lossy conveyance. It was just a matter of time when it was feasible (in a financial sense) to upgrade the canal and re-line it. San Diego is paying for the re-lining, I believe.
I've recently read http://www.alternet.org/water/106565 that states matter of factly that it's morally wrong to re-line the canal because poor farmers in Mexico rely on the leakage.
It is my wish that the Mexicans make the best use of the aquifer (now and after the re-line). Who knows? Perhaps there may be many years of use - if managed properly.
You asked me how I would advise the managers?
I'm only a 'caretaker'. However, if I were a professional in this trade - I would make an assessment of the client's resources both in the amount of capital they wish to invest in their system. I would also look at the available staff used to support the enterprise. I talked about automation. Along with automation, you look at methods. What does it take in O&M practices to raise the bar?
Do any of your clients understand english sufficiently to attend training in the US? If so, I would heartily recommend the Canal training short courses given by Cal Poly http://www.itrc.org/classes.htm . Dr's Burt and Styles have a wonderful program that stresses canal O&M. Another short course is offered by BuRec at their Denver facility http://www.usbr.gov/pmts/hydraulics_lab/workshops/modernmethods_details.html . The BuRec course specializes in the theory of operation. Both are good courses and will provide a manager with some direction in the management of their own system. It's been several years since I've attended these courses so they may have changed.
Hope this helps.
dg
dg
Thanks for your comments and help. I was asked how much water is seeping the canal and I said 37,900 acre feet a year, but in the newpaper article you pointed me out it is said the An estimated 67,000 acre-feet of water seeps from the canal annually. . Anyway, it is less than 5% of the water allocated to Mexicali. But I feel the loss of north to south stream will reverse the direction of the current and Mexicali will start to loose groundwater to the north, and the total loss will be around 10%. Which is significant. The article is tendencious and ignorant, but there is a real issue that salinity here will rise and yields will decrease. Nothing is being done here. There is no sense of alarm, but resignation.
Nothing is being done here. There is no sense of alarm, but resignation.
Does this in any way remind you of Palestine? The article DG posted blames the evil White man for being too prosperous and therefore causing poverty in Mexico, which is a lot like Arafat blaming the evil Jew.
Our governments are both engaged in the same project: to give our land and our water to hostile neighbors who hate us and blame us for their problems.
Latin America is probably a lot like the Arab world. If I am right then there is an Islamic Argentina, an Islamic Brazil and an Islamic Mexico near your country.
ronduck
I am here in the border of the USA and Mexico now for a week and I am not blind but see no signs that the American Government is trying to give up anything to the Mexicans. On the contrary, they are working hard to reduce the volume of water that reaches Mexico.
I am not insinuating that they are doing anything illegal.
J:
Look at the big picture for a second. Think stake holders managing their allotment with the thought of a shortage looming sometime in the future. To my knowledge, their 'rights' to a full allotment will be reduced when a shortage is declared. Not so with the Mexican treaty.
Also, the article I cited can be somewhat misleading. I believe the 67,000 AcFt figure to be in the ballpark as an 'overage' in water lost in the system. Most of the water is lost in the AAC canal. However, some of this estimate could be attributed to excess water in the river that reaches Morelos Dam. Your smaller estimate for the canal seepage loss might be close. The problem with these estimates is that people assume that all the water was lost due to leakage. Not true. Some is due to over delivery at the river.
This is the reason why the Drop 2 project is being built.
If you are running calcs on the amount of water being drawn at Morelos keep in mind that water being drawn at Morelos accounts for 90% of the allotment to Mexico. The other 10% is drawn at San Luis.
Yes, we 'Americans' are trying to reduce the excess flows. However, the term we use is better water management. Something that is of the best interest too all.
And yes, the article I cited was biased and misleading. It doesn't truly represent the situation, just distorts it somewhat.
dg
My apologies for being so negative on your blog. I'll refrain from it in the future.
I am not insinuating that they are doing anything illegal.
We aren't doing anything illegal. But if water is being managed for American interests then it would be an exception to the rule of US-Mexican relations.
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