Amistad Dam

Amistad Dam is a major embankment dam across the Rio Grande between Texas, United States and Coahuila, Mexico. Built to provide irrigation water storage, flood control, and hydropower generation, it is the largest dam along the international boundary reach of the Rio Grande. The dam is over 6mi long, lies mostly on the Mexican side of the border and forms Amistad Reservoir. It supplies water for irrigation in the Rio Grande Valley, 574mi upstream of the Rio Grande's mouth on the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville, Texas/Matamoros, Tamaulipas.The dam is owned and operated by the International Boundary and Water Commission, and also facilitates the Amistad Dam Port of Entry. Amistad is derived from the Spanish word for "friendship", representing the two nations' cooperation on the dam.HistoryBecause of the Rio Grande's frequent floods and droughts, the sharing of its water between the US and Mexico has been a contentious issue since the 1800s. The 1906 Treaty for Equitable Distribution of the Waters of the Rio Grande enabled the construction of Elephant Butte Dam, the first major Rio Grande dam, in New Mexico. While this benefited water users along the middle Rio Grande it did little to help the lower Rio Grande Valley, where water flows remained uncontrolled. The 1944 Treaty relating to the utilization of waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande authorized the IBWC to build dams on the uncontrolled border segment of the Rio Grande. The first dam to be completed under the treaty was Falcon Dam in 1953.