From the State of Texas

INTERNATIONAL FALCON RESERVOIR.
International Falcon Reservoir is located on the Rio Grande east of Zapata (its center point is 26°34' N, 99°10' W). The huge lake is bounded by Starr and Zapata counties, Texas, and the county and city of Nuevo Ciudad Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The dam and reservoir provide for water conservation, flood control, hydroelectric energy, and recreation. The project is owned, authorized, and operated by the United States and Mexico through the International Boundary and Water Commission. The project is named for the relocated town of Falcon, which in turn was renamed in 1915 after the wife of founder José Eugenio RamÃ*rez, MarÃ*a Rita de la Garza Falcón.

The idea of a dam six miles east of the present site began about 1935, and the lake was approved by treaty at its present location in the late 1940s. Work began in 1951, and deliberate impoundment started on August 25, 1953. The reservoir was dedicated by presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adolfo Ruiz Cortines on October 19, 1953. The five-mile-long rolled earthfill and concrete embankment was completed on April 8, 1954. The first power was generated commercially on October 11, 1954. The dam is 150 feet above the riverbed, with a crest elevation of 323 feet above sea level. Almost two miles of the dam is in the United States, and nearly three miles is in Mexico. The cost of the lake to the United States was $35 million. Flood-control benefits to the United States had totaled $130 million by January 1, 1986.

All lands on the United States side, except for Falcon State Park, are privately owned above 307 feet. Boating and fishing are common on the lake. Americans are allowed on both sides without immigration or customs inspection if they do not land in Mexico or take aboard anything from Mexico. Fishing is prohibited below the dam because of sudden water surges based on irrigation needs and controlled by computer from Brownsville. The area of the lake varies from 87,000 acres at elevation 301.2 feet to 115,400 acres at the maximum elevation of 314.2 feet. The reservoir has a summer storage capacity of 2,371,220 acre-feet.

Each country has three 14,750-horsepower turbines running three 10,500-kilowatt generators at each plant. Four units are possible if needed. Under terms of the treaty the United States receives 58.6 percent of the conservation storage and Mexico 41.4 percent; financing of the project was based on the same percentages. The drainage area above the dam is 164,482 square miles; 87,760 is in the United States and 76,722 in Mexico. The United States side provides nine public access areas, including the dam itself, along which runs a two-lane highway connecting Farm Road 2098 and Mexican Highway 2.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Patsy Jeanne Byfield, Falcon Dam and the Lost Towns of Zapata (Austin: Texas Memorial Museum, 1971). C. L. Dowell, Dams and Reservoirs in Texas: History and Descriptive Information (Texas Water Commission Bulletin 6408 [Austin, 1964]). Virgil N. Lott and Mercurio Martinez, The Kingdom of Zapata (San Antonio: Naylor, 1953). Texas Board of Water Engineers, Bulletin 5807A, September 1958. Valley By-Liners, Roots by the River: A Story of Texas Tropical Borderland (Mission, Texas: Border Kingdom Press, 197. Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

http://207.200.58.4/handbook/online/art ... /roi2.html

Interesting 2004 article from the Water News. According to the law suit mentioned in this article, Mexico has been "cheating" on the treaty for years and allowed to get away with it at the expense of US farmers.
November 2004
U.S. Water News Online

AUSTIN, Texas -- It seems the more Texans learn about the state's water issues, the more complicated it becomes.

A research report issued in early 2004 details the specifics behind the water war between the United States and Texas, and how it is specifically affecting Texas agricultural producers.

According to the report which included papers by Susan Combs, Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner (TDA); Katharine Armstrong, former chair of Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission (TPW); and Kathleen Hartnett White, chair, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), problems with Texas water issues are not a new issue.

What is new are the issues that have been addressed in recent years ... either in the Texas Legislature or under the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed by the United States, Canada and Mexico, which took effect in 1994. Agreements really go back to 1944 when the United States and Mexico created a "U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty" which governed and divided the flow of water in the Rio Grande Basin from the Rio Grande and certain tributaries in the United States and Mexico.

According to a report prepared for Combs by the Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin, the Treaty stated "... Mexico must provide, at a minimum, an average of 350,000 acre feet of water per year to the United States over a five-year cycle for a total of 1,750,000 acre feet of water."

Under the 1944 agreement, Mexico was expected to send the United States (California and Arizona receive Colorado River water, too) 350,000 acre feet of water each year, which would come from six Rio Grande tributaries. The United States was, in turn, to send Mexico 1.5 million acre feet of water from the Colorado River.

Over the past 60 years, Texans and agricultural producers ... especially those in the Rio Grande area ... have expected Mexico to abide by the agreement signed in 1944. Unfortunately, it just hasn't happened.

After years of losing land, money and producers due to a lack of water, 17 irrigation districts, North Alamo Water Supply Corporation, and 29 farmers sent notice to Mexican officials that, under the NAFTA agreement of 1994, unless Mexico delivers what is due, they will seek up to $500 million in damages from the Mexican government. The suit is being handled by Marzulla & Marzulla, attorneys at law located in Washington, D.C. If nothing is accomplished by the end of the year, it is expected that a federal suit will be filed under NAFTA.

"Mexico has unlawfully taken over 1,000,000 acre feet of Texas water and given it to Mexican farmers so their farmers can grow crops. All while the crops of farmers in the Rio Grande Valley have dried up and blown away," said Nancie Marzulla, attorney for the claimants in a recent press release.

According to Combs and recent reports from the Center for North American Studies, CNAS 2003-4, Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University, College Station, "... irrigated water use from surface and groundwater sources in Chihuahua (Mexico) more than doubled from 1980 to 1997.

"President Fox has not demonstrated a sincere willingness to work to resolve the treaty issue," noted Combs on Oct. 26 from her office on the 11th floor of the Stephen F. Austin building, which overlooks the Capitol and downtown Austin.

The most accurate figures into Combs' office indicate the "official" figure of water in Mexico was 1.42 million acre feet, plus additional water in reservoirs identified in satellite imagery. That does not include recent, heavy rains in Chihuahua in October, according to Gordon Wells of the University of Texas. Plenty of water to repay the United States, according to the agreement.

What happens in the future is anyone's guess. What Combs and other Texas officials are aware of is that the water is there for Mexico to return to the United States. Satellite photos show there is an abundance of water in Mexico. Fortunately, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas has received a lot of rain, this year, but an agreement is an agreement, officials feel.

While the state of Texas and its farmers do not have a legal right to demand the return of the water owed to the state and its producers, a suit through NAFTA has a legal "leg to stand on" for water rights, stated Combs.

Although the Mexico/Texas water problems have received a lot of publicity of late, Combs believes that rural producers need to be vigilant concerning water rights in their areas.

"Ground water conservation districts give the local guys the best opportunities to determine their future," said Combs.
http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arc ... elv11.html