Agriculture in the Rio Grande River Basin Irrigation, for cotton, alfalfa, sugar cane, pecans, and pasture, is by far the largest water use in the basin In the Upper Rio Grande Basin alone, from its headwaters in Colorado to Fort Quitman in Texas, over 300,000 acres (1,000 hectares) are irrigated, including 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares) on the Mexican side of this section of theWells tend to be far from the river, and wastewater discharges are direct to the river, you see little if any net use by the urban centers in this reach Figure 8 Major irrigated acreage in the Rio Grande Basin The final straw is the Rio Grande Project and the Treaty delivery to Mexico Figure 11 shows how the Project supply was very short in theThe Rio Grande Basin is located in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico (Figure 7–1) The river's headwaters are in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado The river flows southward through Colorado's San Luis Valley, then through central New Mexi
