U.S.-Mexico Pact May Help Solve Southwest Water Supply Woes

"Damage from a spring earthquake in Mexico set the stage for a breakthrough last weekend in tense negotiations between the United States and its southern neighbor that some hope will usher in an era of cross-border trading of water rights in the parched Colorado River Basin.

Mexico has agreed to store some of its share of the river's water over the next three years in Nevada's depleted Lake Mead reservoir while the country repairs 398 miles of canals and pipelines damaged April 4 in the Mexicali region by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake."

Paul Quinlan reports for Greenwire December 22, 2010.