1-1     By:  Oliveira (Senate Sponsor - Lucio)                H.C.R. No. 88
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House March 22, 2001;
 1-3     March 26, 2001, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Natural Resources; May 7, 2001, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 7, 2001, sent to printer.)
 1-6                         HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-7           WHEREAS, International allocation of water from the Rio
 1-8     Grande, known in Mexico as the Rio Bravo, is governed by two
 1-9     treaties completed in 1906 and 1944 between the United States and
1-10     its southern neighbor, Mexico; and
1-11           WHEREAS, The 1906 treaty, which covers the Rio Grande/Rio
1-12     Bravo from its headwaters in Colorado to Fort Quitman, allocates to
1-13     Mexico an annual share of runoff from the upper portion of the
1-14     river basin in the United States; to meet that obligation, the
1-15     United States at its expense undertook storage and diversion works
1-16     including the Elephant Butte Dam in New Mexico through which
1-17     Mexico's water is delivered; and
1-18           WHEREAS, The 1944 treaty, which covers the Rio Grande/Rio
1-19     Bravo from Fort Quitman to the Gulf of Mexico, governs the
1-20     management of two separate watercourses:  the Colorado River, which
1-21     enters  Mexico  from the Arizona-California border, and the Tijuana
1-22     River, which originates in the Sierra Juarez in Baja California and
1-23     enters the United States just south of San Diego; and
1-24           WHEREAS, Responsibility for the  administration  of  the 1944
1-25     treaty   is  vested  with  the  International  Boundary  and  Water
1-26     Commission (IBWC), known in Mexico as the Comision Internacional de
1-27     Limites y Agua (CILA), a binational agency with a commissioner  and
1-28     staff  sections representing each of the two nations, headquartered
1-29     in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez; and
1-30           WHEREAS, The commission constructed the Falcon and Amistad
1-31     reservoirs, completed in 1954 and 1968, respectively, and the
1-32     American and Mexican sections jointly operate and release water
1-33     from those reservoirs and handle the accounting of the Rio
1-34     Grande/Rio Bravo water shares to which each of the participant
1-35     nations are entitled; and
1-36           WHEREAS, Of present concern to the Texas Legislature is
1-37     Article 4 of the 1944 treaty, which among its allocative provisions
1-38     apportions to the United States one-third of the flow reaching the
1-39     main channel of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo from six Mexican tributary
1-40     basins, or a minimum from those basins of not less than an annual
1-41     350,000 acre-feet averaged over a cycle of five consecutive years;
1-42     and
1-43           WHEREAS, The six tributaries include principally the Rio
1-44     Conchos and Rio Salado, along with lesser hydrological systems
1-45     consisting of the San Diego, San Rodrigo, and Escondido rivers and
1-46     Las Vacas Arroyo; and
1-47           WHEREAS, Article 4 provides that a five-year accounting
1-48     period begins whenever the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs are at
1-49     capacity, and states that in the event of extraordinary drought,
1-50     any deficit existing at the end of the five years shall be repaid
1-51     from the water of the tributaries over an ensuing period of another
1-52     five years, or until the reservoirs refill and the debt is
1-53     nullified; and
1-54           WHEREAS, An accounting cycle began in early October 1992,
1-55     when Amistad and Falcon reservoirs last reached capacity, and over
1-56     the next half decade, when minimum Mexican deliveries under the
1-57     treaty should have totaled 1,750,000 acre-feet for the five years,
1-58     actual deliveries were only 726,000 acre-feet, for a deficit of
1-59     1,024,000 acre-feet; and
1-60           WHEREAS, The third year of what is supposed to be a five-year
1-61     repayment period concluded in October 2000, and not only has Mexico
1-62     not yet retired the preceding shortfall, but the 1992-1997 deficit
1-63     has grown to 1,409,000 acre-feet, and full repayment by October
1-64     2002 is consequently in jeopardy; and
 2-1           WHEREAS, The United States is in compliance with the 1906
 2-2     treaty, and is in compliance with the Colorado River and Tijuana
 2-3     River provisions of the 1944 treaty, but expects reciprocity and a
 2-4     like commitment to make the treaties work as signed and agreed to;
 2-5     now, therefore, be it
 2-6           RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas
 2-7     hereby  request the  International  Boundary and Water  Commission,
 2-8     also known as the Comision Internacional  de  Limites  y  Agua,  to
 2-9     assure that Mexico meet its Article 4 delivery obligations under
2-10     the 1944 treaty governing the sharing  of waters from the  Rio
2-11     Grande/Rio Bravo basin; and, be it further
2-12           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward a copy of
2-13     this resolution to the United States and Mexican sections of that
2-14     commission, and provide copies also to the Texas Water Development
2-15     Board, to the Region M water planning group, and to the Texas
2-16     Natural Resource Conservation Commission to the attention of the
2-17     Texas watermaster for this state's lower Rio Grande water rights.
2-18                                  * * * * *