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Comment by xyzwave | Hacker News Reader

Don’t forget Mexico who’s allocated 1.5 million acre-feet per year (59 cubic metres per second) by the Colorado River Compact [1].

Which I believe was drafted during the wettest decade in the Southwest’s history.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact

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Wait, Mexico’s share is (as seems from both your comment and the link) specified in absolute terms rather than as a percentage like the US states? Leaving no allowance for that amount not existing?

More specific link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact#Provisi...

I believe that the water to be supplied to Mexico via the river was of such poor quality that we ended up either trucking or directly purifying a set volume of water downstream to meet our treaty obligations.

Minute 319 [1] determines how water allocations will change during conditions of drought or surplus. This is also covered a little at the end of the Wikipedia article.

In a max drought scenario (Lake Mead surface elevation <1,025 feet) it looks like delivery requirements would be reduced by 125,000 acre-feet, with different delivery thresholds above that range.

1. https://www.ibwc.gov/Files/Minutes/Min319_Env_Fact_Sheet.pdf

time to cut mexicos water before anything else then. not like they can fight us on it.

Yes, because who gives a fuck about treaties. After all, when your neighbor can't fight you it's a-ok to take their stuff. /s

better they have problems then we do

No it's not. What do you think is going to happen to the migration or border once agriculture and clean water supplies evaporate down there?

Do the right thing, fulfill the obligations. The consequences suck for everyone.

why should we fulfil our obligations to the mexicans before the arizonans? we should keep our obligations to our own country first. we literally cant fulfill all the obligations so some has to go. im not saying "screw mexico" but its a governments job to care for its own people at least before others.

"Fuck you, got mine"

Sounds fair, as long as arizonians would stop culturing the crops painfully developped during thousands of years and generously shared with them by Mexicans (Tomatoes, pepper, corn), or Peruvians (Potatoes), or Argentinians and Bolivians (Peanuts), or Europeans (Onions, Lattice, Cabbage), or Africans (cup of coffee?), or Asians (return also the red jungle chicken please, and the apple native from Kazakhstan).

They can still culture the arizonian jackalope thistle and the sellfish redneck's muddy sweetgrass, and all the other members in the long list of wonderful crops developed there, of course.

That's a non sequitur if I've ever read one.

The fact is that the entire planet worked really hard so places like this can have an agriculture. Lets face it, Arizona didn't provided a lot in return to the science of agriculture.

And now some people is saying lets keep all the water, so people down the river don't have/don't deserve any?

A little understanding and maybe even gratitude would be a nice touch.

Think of it as a taste of what is to come when water will become more scarce. This is pretty much in line with predictions and the term 'water war' may well become commonplace in the near future.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_conflict

The entire planet worked really hard so they could survive, it had nothing to do with being generous to other cultures or particularly to benefit the good people of Arizona.

Focusing entirely on the short term wellbeing of your own can be a big mistake. Sure, giving all the water to Arizona and ignoring the deal with Mexico is better for Americans long term. But what happens next?

Short term thinking is what gets us into these problems in the first place.

Do you want a massive wave of unauthorized immigration? Because that's how you get a massive wave of unauthorized immigration.

Uhh, thing is, that’s been going on for the better part of two years now

And this is why we need nuclear proliferation.

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