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APPENDIX III

A

RIO GRANDE RIVER PROJECTS

CHAPTER 4831

S.B. 359

AN ACT To facilitate the construction of certain projects on the Rio Grande River under the Treaty of February 3, 1944, between the United States of America and United Mexican States by authorizing the Governor of the State of Texas to grant the title of the State of Texas to such of those portions of the bed and banks of the Rio Rrande River in Hidalgo, Starr, and Zapata Counties, Texas, as may be necessary or expedient for the construction of any of the works provided for by such Treaty, but reserving to the State of Texas all minerals subject to certain conditions under which such minerals may be explored for, produced, or developed; and declaring an emergency

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

SECTION 1. The Governor of the State of Texas is hereby authorized to grant to the United States of America in accordance with the conditions hereinafter set out, such of those portions of the bed and banks of the Rio Grande River in Hidalgo, Starr, and Zapata Counties as may be necessary or expedient in the construction and use of the storage and flood control dams and their resultant reservoirs, diversion works, and appurtenances thereto, provided for in the Treaty between the United States of America and United Mexican States, concluded February 3, 1944.

SEC. 2. When the United States Commissioner, International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico, shall make application to the Governor of the State of Texas describing the area which is deemed necessary or expedient for use under said Treaty, the Governor shall issue a grant for and on behalf of the State of Texas to the United States of America conveying to it the area described in the application, which said grant shall reserve unto the State of Texas all minerals except rock, sand and gravel needed by the United States in the operation or construction by the United States or its agents of any of the works described in Section 1 of this Act subject to the proviso that the minerals so reserved to the State shall not be explored for, developed or produced in a manner which will at any time prevent or interfere with the operation or construction by the United States of America of any of the works described in Section 1 of this Act; and providing further, that prior to exploring for or developing such reserved minerals the written consent and approval of the United States Section International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico, or its successor agency, shall be obtained as to the proposed area sought to be explored or developed by the State of Texas, including, but not by way of limitation, the location of and production facilities for oil and/or gas wells. Successive applications may be made by the said United States Commissioner, and successive grants may be made to the United States of America by the Governor for and on behalf of the State of Texas, embracing various tracts within the limits herein specified, and no time limit shall be imposed upon such grants; provided, however, that nothing herein shall be construed as divesting, limiting, or otherwise affecting the property rights, including, but not by way of limitation, the riparian rights, under the laws of the State of Texas, of the private owners of land abutting the Rio Grande River in the counties herein referred to. The authority herein granted to the Governor of the State of Texas extends only to the bed and banks of the Rio Grande River to the extent that title to such bed and banks is by law vested in the State of Texas whether under the civil law, or common law, or Court decisions

1 Vernon's Ann. Civ. St., art. 5248g.

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of the State of Texas or otherwise; provided, however, that any grant or grants made to the United States of America in accordance with this authority shall contain a reservation that in the event any part of the property so granted shall ever cease to be used for the purposes set out within this Act for a continuous period of five years after the beginning of such use, the part or parts of said property which are not so used shall immediately and automatically revert to the State of Texas after the expiration of said five year period.

SEC. 3. The fact that the procedure hereby authorized is urgently required in order that the United States of America may proceed with its obligations under said Treaty, and the crowded condition of the calendars in both Houses of the Legislature, create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the Constitutional Rule requiring bills to be read on three several days in each House be, and the same is hereby suspended; and this Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted. Passed the Senate, May 12, 1949: Yeas 30, Nays 0; June 13, 1949. Senate refused to concur in House amendments, and requested appointment of Conference Committee; June 20, 1949, request granted; June 27, 1949, Senate adopted Conference Report: Yeas 28, Nays 0; passed the House June 9, 1949, with amendments: Yeas 132, Nays 0; June 20, 1949, House granted request of Senate for appointment of Conference Committee; June 27, 1949, House adopted Conference Report: Yeas 123, Nays 0. Approved June 30, 1949.

Effective June 30, 1949.

B

BED AND BANKS OF RIO GRANDE IN CERTAIN COUNTIES-GRANTS TO FEDERAL

GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER 324

H.B. No. 881

AN ACT Amending Section 1 of Chapter 483 of the Acts of the Fifty-first Legislature, Regular Session, 1949, codified as Section 1 of Article 5248g, Vernon's Civil Statutes of Texas, so as to include within its terms and provisions the Counties of Brewster, Cameron, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kinney, Maverick, Presidio, Terrell, Val Verde, and Webb, Texas; and declaring an emergency

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

SECTION 1. Section 1 of Chapter 483 of the Acts of the Fifty-first Legislature, Regular Session, 1949, codified as Section 1 of Article 5248g, Vernon's Civil Statutes of Texas, is hereby amended1 to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. The Governor of the State of Texas is hereby authorized to grant to the United States of America in accordance with the conditions hereinafter set out, such of those portions of the bed and banks of the Rio Grande in Brewster, Cameron, Hidalgo, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kinney, Maverick, Presidio, Starr, Terrell, Val Verde, Webb and Zapata Counties as may be necessary or expedient in the construction and use of the storage and flood control dams and their resultant reservoirs, diversion works and appurtenances thereto, provided for in the Treaty between the United States of America and United Mexican States, concluded February 3, 1944."

SEC. 2. The fact that the present law does not authorize the Governor of Texas to grant title to portions of the bed and banks of the Rio Grande in Brewster, Cameron, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kinney, Maverick, Presidio, Terrell, Val Verde, and Webb Counties on behalf of the State of Texas to the United States of America, the fact that such authorization is urgently required to enable the Federal Government to proceed with the construction of dams, diversion works and appurtenances thereto in such Counties, and the crowded condition of the calendars in both Houses of the Legislature, create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the Constitutional Rule requiring bills to be read on three several days in each House be, and the same is hereby suspended, and this Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.

1 Vernon's Ann. Civ. St., art. 5248g, sec. 1.

Passed the House, April 29, 1955: Yeas 137, Nays 1; House concurred in Senate amendments May 6, 1955, by a viva-voce vote; passed the Senate, as amended, May 4, 1955: Yeas 29, Nays 0.

Approved May 24, 1955.

Effective 90 days after June 7, 1955, date of adjournment.

C

INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY AND WATER COMMISSION,
UNITED STATES AND MEXICO,

Hon. ARMISTEAD I. SELDEN, Jr.,

UNITED STATES SECTION,
El Paso, Tex., March 22, 1960.

Chairman, Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs,

Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. SELDEN: In reviewing testimony before your subcommittee regarding the Amistad Dam project it occurs to me that the question of providing conser vation storage may not have been fully clarified.

As was brought out in the testimony, article 5 of the Water Treaty provides for the construction of the dams required for the conservation, storage and regulation of the maximum quantity of the annual flow of the Rio Grande in a way to ensure the continuance of existing uses and the development of the greatest number of feasible projects within the limits imposed by the water allotments specified. The same article requires that in planning the construction of such dams the International Boundary and Water Commission shall determine the most feasible sites; the maximum feasible reservoir capacity at each site; the conservation capacity required by each country at each site, taking into consideration the amount and regimen of its allotment of water and its contemplated uses; and the capacities required for silt detention and flood control. As stated in Commission Minute No. 207 and this Section's feasibility report on the project, the conservation capacity required by each country at Amistad (1,686,000 acre-feet for the United States and 1,314,000 acre-feet for Mexico) was determined by its Section of the Commission, and the capacities required for the other specified purposes were determined jointly by the two Sections, the total capacity being 5,660,000 acre-feet.

Under the terms of article 5 of the Water Treaty the costs of construction, operation and maintenance of the international storage dams provided for by that article are prorated between the two Governments in proportion to the capacity allotted to each country for conservation purposes in the reservoir at such dam. On the basis of the above-stated conservation capacities at Amistad, the division of costs of the dam would be 56.2 percent to the United States and 43.8 percent to Mexico.

A decision by the United States not to provide conservation storage at Amistad would not be in accordance with the treaty and would mean that if the dam were constructed with conservation capacity for Mexico alone, Mexico would have to pay, in accordance with article 5, the entire cost of construction, operation and maintenance. This, I am sure, Mexico would be unwilling to do. The result would be no agreement, no dam at the Amistad site, and failure to provide the much-needed flood control as well as other benefits of the project to the two countries.

I should add that as was brought out in the testimony, if Mexico should be willing to build, operate and maintain Amistad dam at is own expense, providing conservation capacity for Mexico only, it would be able under the terms of the treaty to use substantial quantities of U.S. waters by virtue of being able to conserve such U.S. waters as would otherwise waste to the Gulf of Mexico because of insufficient conservation capacity available to the United States.

Sincerely yours,

L. H. HEWITT, Commissioner.

APPENDIX IV

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 11, 1959.

Hon. THOMAS E. MORGAN,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,
House of Representatives.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: By your letter of July 6, 1959, you requested the Department's comments on H.R. 8080, a bill to authorize the conclusion of an agreement for the joint construction by the United States and Mexico of a major international storage dam on the Rio Grande in accordance with the provisions of the treaty of February 3, 1944, with Mexico, and for other purposes.

In the treaty of 1944 the Governments of the United States and Mexico agreed "to construct jointly, through their respective Sections of the Commission * * *: The dams required for the conservation, storage and regulation of the greatest quantity of the annual flow of the river in a way to ensure the continuance of existing uses and the development of the greatest number of feasible projects, within the limits imposed by the water allotments specified" in the treaty. The treaty contemplated that one or more storage dams would be required upstream from the Falcon Dam which was completed in 1953.

The two sections of the Commission have conducted extensive surveys and studies to determine the most favorable site on the Rio Grande for a second major international storage dam, to determine the reservoir capacities required to provide, in conjunction with the Falcon Dam and Reservoir, optimum feasible conservation, regulation and flood control; and to determine the most appropriate general design of dam to serve these purposes from the standpoint of operational characteristics and economy of construction. The Commission found that of the many sites investigated, the Diablo site, located approximately 1 mile below the confluence with the Devils River and 12 miles upstream from Del Rio, Tex., was the most suitable for the second international dam. The Commission found that for optimum feasible control and regulation of water at the Diablo site, there would be required a total reservoir capacity for the United States and Mexico of 5,660,000 acre-feet. This would consist of floodcontrol capacity, including superstorage, of 2,110,000 acre-feet in which each country would have an undivided interest; 3 million acre-feet conservation storage capacity of which 1,686,000 acre-feet would be the U.S. share; and 550,000 acre-feet silt retention storage of which 309,000 acre-feet would be the U.S. share. The Commission found that a dam at the Diablo site to provide such total storage capacity would be entirely feasible from an engineering standpoint, and that the most appropriate general type of dam at this site would consist of a gated concrete overflow section in the river channel flanked by earth embankments.

There is urgent need from the viewpoint of the United States for a major international storage project on the Rio Grande upstream from Falcon Dam to protect lives and safeguard property in this country from floods, and to conserve for beneficial uses the optimum feasible quantities of waters of the Rio Grande. According to the feasibility report of September 1958 to which H.R. 8080 refers, the annual primary benefits from the project to the United States compared with annual costs would be 1.96:1 for a 50-year life of the project and 2.48:1 for a 100-year life.

That these figures were conservatively estimated was demonstrated in the very month in which the report was issued. A flood among the largest in volume of record on the Rio Grande began to enter Falcon Reservoir about the middle of September 1958. It became necessary to make flood releases at Falcon Dam far exceeding the downstream channel capacity of the river. The total value of flood damages in the United States and of losses of waters to this country in 1958, both of which the Diablo project would have prevented, amounted to approximately $42,500,000. This figure corresponds to almost 90 percent of the U.S. share of the total cost of the Diablo project, which share

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is estimated at $49 million. These heavy losses, incurred in a single year. further emphasize the urgent need and justification for the project.

In view of the undertaking of the two Governments in the treaty of 1944 with respect to construction of major international storage dams on the Rio Grande, and in view also of the high ratio of benefits to costs of the project to the United States, the Department believes that legislation should be enacted as soon as possible authorizing conclusion of an agreement with the Government of Mexico for the joint construction of this project. H.R. 8080 would accomplish this purpose.

The Department recommends that the committee amend H.R. 8080 in certain respects largely for the sake of clarity.

In the second proviso of the second paragraph of section 2 it is suggested that the phrase "That if such power privilege is leased" be amended to read "That if it is proposed to lease such power privilege ***" It is also suggested that "United States" be inserted before "Commissioner, International Boundary and Water Commission" and that "United States and Mexico" be inserted immediately thereafter, in order to conform to the titles established by treaty. The first sentence of section 3 is intended, it is understood, to insure that, after the proposed dam is placed in operation, the amount of U.S. water that will be available for use below Falcon Dam will not be less than the amount that would have been available without the proposed dam under present conditions of development between the new dam site and Falcon Reservoir. This provision is in substantial accord with one of the conditions under which the Texas State Board of Water Engineers and Governor Daniel approved the feasibility report on the project. Compliance with such a requirement would be dependent upon the State of Texas, which controls the distribution of the U.S. share of waters of the Rio Grande below Fort Quitman and would control releases of U.S. waters impounded by the proposed dam for domestic, municipal, industrial and irrigation uses between that dam and the Gulf of Mexico. It is accordingly suggested that the first sentence of section 3 be modified to read as follows:

"SEC. 3. If a dam is constructed pursuant to an agreement concluded under the authorization granted by Section 1 of this Act, its operation for conservation and release of United States waters shall be integrated with other United States water conservation activities on the Rio Grande below Fort Quitman, Texas, in such manner as to provide the maximum feasible amount of water for beneficial use in the United States, with the understandings that (a) releases of United States waters from said dam for domestic, municipal, industrial and irrigation uses in the United States shall be made pursuant to order by the appropriate authority or authorities of the State of Texas, and (b) the State of Texas having stipulated that the amount of water that will be available for use in the United States below Falcon Dam after the proposed dam is placed in operation will be not less than the amount available under existing conditions of development, it shall be the responsibility of the appropriate authority or authorities of said State to distribute available United States waters of the Rio Grande in such manner as will comply with said stipulation."

If the term "existing lawful users of the United States" is retained in section 3, it should be clarified that determination as to legality of existing uses is to be made pursuant to the laws of the State of Texas.

Since section 1 of the bill authorizes conclusion of an agreement for construction, operation, and maintenance of the dam and section 2 authorizes, subject to certain conditions, conclusion of an agreement for construction, operation, and maintenance of facilities for generating hydroelectric energy, "agreements" should be substituted for "agreement" in section 6.

With these modifications, the Department recommends enactment of H.R. 8080.

The Bureau of the Budget has stated that it would have no objection to the submission of this report, with the understanding that a copy of its letter to the Department of September 2, 1959, would accompany the report. of that letter is enclosed.

Sincerely yours,

A copy

WILLIAM B. MACOMBER, Jr.,
Assistant Secretary

(For the Acting Secretary of State).

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