Stephanie Jackter - 5-23-2003 at 12:33 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20030521-2312-mexi...
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:12 p.m., May 21, 2003
MEXICO CITY ? Mexico implored the United States not to cut the flow of Colorado River water in retaliation for this country's water debt in the Rio
Grande region, saying such a move would harm efforts to save the environmentally sensitive upper Gulf of California.
Activists worry that endangered species like the Vaquita porpoises ? of which less than 600 remain ? could become the latest victims of the water
conflict.
"Don't shoot yourself in the foot by doing something that would affect both sides, by affecting something we both are interested in saving,"
Environment Secretary Victor Lichtinger said at a news conference Wednesday.
Located 50 miles south of the Mexico-U.S. border, Jaques Cousteau once described the upper Gulf of California as "the world's aquarium."
Earlier this month, angered by Mexico's failure to deliver agreed-on amounts of water into the Rio Grande, Texas Rep. Solomon Ortiz called on the U.S.
government to withhold water deliveries to Mexico from the Colorado River.
Ortiz said "the only arrow left in our quiver is to withhold water (the Mexicans) need, as they have done to the United States for over a decade."
The Colorado flows across the border and into the Gulf of California, creating a wetlands delta which ? while reduced to a shadow of its former size
by water overuse ? is still a key breeding ground for birds and marine life.
A 1944 treaty stipulates Mexico must send water into the Rio Grande for use by Texas farmers, in exchange for a much larger amount of Colorado water
from the United States. Mexico has failed to deliver its full contribution over the last decade.
"This shouldn't be a question of revenge or retaliation," Lichtinger said. "We should work together to conserve the Colorado River Delta."