User talk:Pciszek

San Luis Rio Colorado-Colonia Miguel Aléman Bridge

My picture appears on the web in a lot of places, because a lot of place steal Wikipedia's content outright. But no, that is not the right location, you're looking at a spot about 15 miles NNE of the actual bridge which is the Morelos Diversion Dam. The San Luis Rio Colorado-Colonia Miguel Aléman Bridge is a toll bridge that connects San Luis Colorado in Sonora with Colonia Miguel Aléman in Baja California Norte along the mainline of the Carretera Federal 2 (MX 2). The actual bridge is at 32º29'42.37"N 114º50'08.19"W.

You wrote: This picture seems to appear on the web in a lot of places: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ColoradoRiverAtSanLuis.jpg Since most of them quote the Wikipedia caption verbatim, I guess they are mostly getting it from Wikipedia. I am trying to reconcile this picture with what I see on Google Maps. It doesn't help that I can't seem to find the San Luis Colorado-Colonia Miguel Aléman Bridge. Is this the location where you took to photo? 32.705402,-114.728889

scooteristi (talk) 23:21, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

===Reply===

You're obviously not clear on the border, the Gadsen Purchase, or the two subsequent treaties between the USA and Mexico in 1889 and 1994 governing use of the Colorado River water.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War essentially made the border a straight line running from Tijuana to Las Cruces along the Gila River valley through Arizona and New Mexico. The subsequent Gadsen Purchase moved the border south 16 miles along the Colorado River then east along the current border. So the river bed itself from where Arizona, Baja California Norte, and California meet at Fort Yuma south 16 miles to the San Luis Rio Colorado-Colonia Miguel Aléman Bridge is the border. The bridge where the photograph was taken is approximately a football field south of where the border heads east and thus the river exits the United States.

Now your confusion seems to rest with your lack of knowledge that the border runs north-south in that area. The Morelos Diversion Dam is located a mile south of where the border heads south from Fort Yuma. Half the dam (which is maintained entirely by Mexico) is located within U.S. territory though outside our border fence, and it diverts the last drip of the Colorado flow to agricultural uses in Mexicali Valley. You can read more on the IBWC website.

So the fact remains that, in the warm months when the flow is lowest, where the Colorado river exits the United States the water has been entirely drained, though the last drops were taken by Mexico. From January to March when the winter monsoons hit the Sonoran desert the river does, briefly, still make it to the Sea of Cortez.

You wrote: So, the location of the photo is not on the national border? The caption of the photo, "Colorado River as it exits the United States into Mexico beneath the San Luis Colorado-Colonia Miguel Aléman Bridge", seemed to imply that the picture was taken on the US/Mexico border. People have been using the picture to imply that the Colorado River doesn't make it into Mexico from the US. What I think I see on Google Maps is the diversion dam on the border, which diverts the river from its original course to a different course within Mexico. Is the reason there is no water in your picture that the river has been moved elsewhere, or that the river has ceased to exist before it gets to the US/Mexico border?

scooteristi (talk) 01:39, 26 September 2011 (UTC)