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SALINITY PROBLEMS-LOWER COLORADO RIVER 9 damaging flood waters or excessively low flows. This change in regimen was of great benefit to Mexican as well as American water users. Near the end of the period, upstream developments had reached the stage at which much of the dependable water supply was committed and the flow at the boundary appreciably reduced. The increase in salt content in this period was more perceptible than formerly, particularly between 1955 and 1961 when a prolonged drought in the basin curtailed the flow. Operation under the Mexican Water Treaty benefited Mexico not only by guaranteeing a specific minimum annual quantity of water at the border but also by delivering the waters, in the words of the then Boundary and Water Commissioner for Mexico, "regulated by the American works, and at the appropriate time for their application to the lands."Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 24 bit, 19,789,824 byte