SAN LUIS – (INT) – While the State Water Project has become a trickle, run-off along another key water resource has been fully up to par.

The Bureau of Reclamation says the April-July run-off down the Colorado River was 98 percent of normal as winter snowfall in the Rocky Mountains melts.

There was enough water to permit the opening of the gates at the Morelos Dam on the Mexican border. It’s the first time Colorado River water reached the Gulf of California.

The Bureau’s Jack Simes says it was part of an experiment to improve the ecology along the river bed in Northern Baja.

“The intent was to replicate a major storm that would re-germinate willow and cottonwood trees. There is a lot of science work engaged in this.”

The water was only a small portion of the 1.5 million acre-feet that’s diverted by the Morelos Dam under a treaty with Mexico for use in the Mexicali Valley.

Story Date: August 3, 2014