THE IMPERIAL VALLEY — On a rocky patch of desert, federal and state officials Tuesday began construction on a $172.2-million reservoir that will store water from the Colorado River that otherwise would be "lost" to Mexico.
The reservoir will mean more water for coastal Southern California, southern Nevada and central Arizona -- where water agencies have agreed to split the cost.
But it will mean less water for Mexico, where farmers and cities are suffering from drought and a leaky infrastructure that has trouble delivering water to its customers.
For decades, the United States has allowed Mexico to receive more water from the Colorado River than it was assured under a 1944 treaty. The excess water came from those occasions when more water was surging down the river than Imperial Valley farmers could use.
But with the region suffering a historic drought, the U.S. Interior Department took the lead in devising a project to capture excess water from the All-American Canal rather than allowing it to flow south of the border.
"It's not Mexico's water," said Stella Mendoza, a member of the Imperial Irrigation District board. "It's California's water. Mexico has been using it for free all these years. They should have realized that someday it would stop."
The reservoir, scheduled to be completed in August 2010, is the second Imperial Valley project that will mean more water for the United States but less for Mexico. At a cost of nearly $250 million, a 23-mile stretch of the All-American Canal is being lined with concrete to prevent seepage.
Seepage from the canal, and excess flows from the Colorado River, have helped replenish the Mexicali Valley aquifer. Studies by San Diego State and the Mexican government have predicted dire consequences for thousands of Mexican farmers because of the lining and reservoir projects.
When the canal-lining project was in the planning stage, U.S. and Mexican officials began negotiations to find ways to diminish the effect on Mexico. The talks broke down when the Mexican government sued -- unsuccessfully -- to block the project.
Last year, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and his Mexican counterpart agreed on a binational study group to find ways to stretch the Colorado River supplies for both countries.
Kempthorne, the key speaker at Tuesday's groundbreaking, said he remained hopeful that the two countries would find solutions to their common problem: drought.
