U.S. and Mexico Agree to Share in Colorado River Conservation and Possible Shortage

The United States and Mexico have agreed to update and extend a 2012 deal through which Americans invest millions of dollars in Mexican water conservation in exchange for a share of Mexico’s Colorado River water.

The deal spreads the costs of conservation and the pain of future droughts and shortages across the river’s millions of users north and south. The river supplies water to about 40 million Americans from Denver to Los Angeles.

Whenever drought forces the U.S. to impose cuts under a planned drought contingency plan, the International Boundary and Water Commission said Wednesday, Mexico will agree to cut its take of the river “in parity with U.S. savings." Read the full article.