Putting aside their immigration and border-security differences as well as criticism from Mexican farmers, the U.S. and Mexican governments have reached a Colorado River water-use agreement that continues a trend toward joint water-resource management. The agreement, signed on Sept. 21 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and approved by the two governments on Sept. 27, retains key features of an earlier accord that took effect in 2012 and was set to expire at the end of this year. Among these are water-banking for Mexico in Nevada’s Lake Mead; contingencies for periods of water shortages or surpluses; and water releases aimed at spurring ecological restoration in the heavily tapped Colorado’s parched lower reaches near Mexico’s Gulf of California. The new agreement, called Minute 323, also provides for the possible extension of the U.S. state of California’s All-American Canal to Tijuana, Mexico; construction of a desalinization plant on the... [Log in to read more]