Statement by the President on the Agreement With Mexico Relating to the Colorado River Salinity Problem.

THE United States and Mexico have today approved an agreement between the Commissioners on the International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico, on measures to be undertaken to achieve a solution to the salinity problem on the lower Colorado River. This agreement is in accordance with the objective to reach a permanent and effective solution, first announced by Presidents Kennedy and Lopez Mateos in their joint communiqué of June 30, 1962, and reaffirmed with President Lopez Mateos in the joint communiqué of February 22, 1964.

The solution agreed upon involves the construction of an extension to the present drainage channel of the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District in Arizona which would permit the discharge of that district's drainage above or below Morelos Dam, Mexico's main diversion structure on the Colorado River. Under this arrangement Mexico will be able to decide when waters from the Wellton-Mohawk District will be diverted to its irrigation system.

The agreement has been considered by the Governors of the Colorado River basin States and by the chairmen of the appropriate congressional committees, and they have all agreed to it. I have, therefore, instructed the Secretaries of State and of the Interior to take the necessary steps to carry out the agreement. Whatever appropriations are necessary will be requested promptly from the Congress.

I am pleased that we have been able to resolve this problem with Mexico through friendly negotiations. Like the Chamizal Treaty with Mexico and the Columbia River Treaty with our northern neighbor, Canada, both of which we are now implementing, this agreement demonstrates once again that among men of good will any problem will yield to sincere and concerted efforts to resolve it.