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http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11784ENN FULL STORY Water War along Mexico-California Border Sparked by Proposed Improvements to Canal
December 05, 2006 — By David Kravets, Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO — Government lawyers are urging a federal appeals court to allow a section of a canal separating California and Mexico to be lined with cement to stop millions of gallons of water from seeping south of the border each year.
The lining is proposed along a portion of the 82-mile (132-kilometer) All-American Canal that delivers Colorado River water to crop land on both sides of the border about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of San Diego.
The U.S. government says Mexico already gets 489 billion gallons (1.8 trillion liters) of Colorado River water legitimately each year under a 1944 treaty and isn't entitled to the seepage, which provides a farming lifeline in Mexico.
A Justice Department attorney told a panel of three appellate judges on Monday that Mexicans have no right to the water, which is also the lifeblood for 500,000 acres (200,000 hectares)of U.S. farmland.
The lining project will provide enough water for 135,000 new homes in the San Diego area.
The San Francisco-based appeals court temporarily blocked construction of the US$210 million (euro158 million), 23-mile (37-kilometer) -long lining in August after Mexican business interests and U.S. environmental groups sued.
The lawsuit claims there would be significant job losses on the Mexican side of the border as thousands of acres (hectares) of crops would turn to dust, that Mexican wells would become polluted without the seepage and migratory birds would be threatened if wetlands disappeared.
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