Page 103

A. General As a part of these investigations various alternate plans were explored including those suggested by the United States Panel in its Confidential Memorandum Report. The panel's report contains five alternative solutions plus a modification to its Alternative No. 5. These various alternatives are discussed below: B. President's Panel Alternatives 1. Alternative Plan No. 1 - Dilution by Mexican Well Waters. Briefly, this alternative proposes that Mexico pump heavily (342,000 acre-feet) from its ground-water reservoir in the winter, thereby obtaining water containing about 1200 ppm of dissolved solids for dilution of Colorado River water. As the Panel report points out, this would increase the cost of irrigation water and produce an attendant accelerated lowering of the ground-water table with the possibility of salt encroachment in some areas. Further, this would require an action that is entirely within the prerogative of the Republic of Mexico and therefore not considered as being within the scope of this report. 2. Alternative Plan No. 2 - Modification of Treaty Delivery Schedule. The quality of water delivered to Mexico during the winter months could be improved if Mexico would increase the amount of treaty water scheduled for delivery during the winter months and correspondingly decrease the amount scheduled for summer delivery. Such rescheduling of deliveries to Mexico would result in reducing salt concentration in the winter months. It would also necessitate 103Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 8,984,064 byte