What is the average depth of the rio grande river

But a government official who requested anonymity said Washington was concerned a bigger river may cost more lives. Texan mayors reject that claim and are lobbying hard to convince the government that the project is safe and feasible, holding a series of meetings this month with Department of Homeland Security officials. President George W.

Mexico, which must also approve the project because the river is a binational waterway, has shown support for the plans, although Brownsville and its Mexican sister city Matamoros have yet to agree on the position of the weir. Some Border Patrol officials are also warming to it. The Rio Grande flows through seven states, three U. S states, and four Mexican states. The river rising as a clear, snow-fed mountain stream more than 3, meters 12, feet above sea level in the Rocky Mountains.

Its early course follows a canyon through forests of spruce, fir, and aspen into the broad San Luis Valley in Colorado, after which it cuts the Rio Grande Gorge and White Rock Canyon of northern New Mexico and enters the open terrain of the Basin and Range and Mexican Plateau physiographic provinces. Along the remainder of its course the river wanders sluggishly across the Gulf Coastal Plain to end in a fertile delta where it joins the Gulf of Mexico.

The drainage basin or watershed of the Rio Grande encompasses , square kilometers , square miles. Approximately half of the entire watershed is in Mexico, and half lies within the United States.

In the river failed to reach the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. In , it happened again. Water supply within the Rio Grande drainage is dwindling.

The International Boundary and Water Commission was forced to lease irrigation water to grow cottonwood trees for habitat restoration along the riverbank below Elephant Butte Dam in central New Mexico.

Increasingly frequent droughts in the face of climate change and growing populations around Albuquerque and El Paso could exacerbate the problem. Press ESC to cancel. Users' questions. Esther Fleming February 28, Table of Contents.