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Show 222 UPDATING THE HOOVER DAM DOCUMENTS 1.2 Energy It was estimated that approximately 35 megawatts of energy will be needed to operate the Yuma desalter and that additional power would be required for the protective ground-water pumping program. The Basin States felt strongly that these energy requirements should not deprive existing power users of presently used supplies. 1.3. Water Qualify Until the works contemplated by Minute No. 242 are operative, Mexico will receive about the same quality of water as do the United States users who divert from Imperial Dam. This requires the bypass of 118,000 acre-feet per year of Wellton-Mohawk drainage water without charge against Mexico's Treaty allotment and the substitution therefor of stored water released from Imperial Dam and pumped ground water from the Yuma Mesa, plus the continued bypass of the remainder of the Wellton-Mohawk drainage water without substitution therefor of other waters from the United States under the Treaty. Upon authorization of the "necessary works" by Congress, the United States must provide Mexico with water which will have an annual average salinity of not more than 115 p/m, plus or minus 30 p/m, over the annual average salinity at Imperial Dam. This means that all Wellton-Mohawk drainage waters will be bypassed without charge against the Treaty obligation and the United States will substitute higher quality waters in quantities expected to drop from 220,000 acre-feet per year to 175,000 acre-feet per year, depending upon the success of the program to increase the efficiency of Wellton-Mohawk District's use of water and the reduction of the return flow quantities. The better quality water needed to replace the bypassed water would be "borrowed" from stored water and replaced, in effect, by increased storage in Lake Mead as a result of reducing deliveries to Coachella Valley Water District in an amount equal to the salvaged losses and crediting those amounts to the United States. J. Some Alternative Solutions to the Salinity Program The Honorable Brownell, the President's special representative who negotiated Minute No. 242, explained during the hearings on the implementing legislation some of the alternative solutions to the Mexican water problem which were considered and not adopted. These included adjudication rather than negotiation; buyout of the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation District; substitution of Imperial Dam quality water for the Wellton-Mohawk drainage water; and desalting of the Wellton-Mohawk drainage (page 82, House Hearings, Serial No. 93-45). |