Who owns the Rio Grande?

Who owns the Rio Grande in Texas? The United States and Mexico share the waters of the Rio Grande. The U.S.-Mexico border lies in the middle of the river from El Paso and Ju?rez to its delta at the Gulf of Mexico east of Brownsville and Matamoros in South Texas. In Mexico, the federal government owns the river water.



Ownership of the Rio Grande is a complex legal tapestry involving international treaties and domestic water rights. Geographically, it belongs to the sovereign territories it flows through—the United States (Colorado, New Mexico, Texas) and Mexico (where it is known as the Río Bravo). However, its "waters" are governed by the 1944 Water Treaty, managed by the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), which dictates how much water each country must deliver to the other. Domestically, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation manages much of the river's infrastructure, while private water rights are owned by various irrigation districts, Native American Tribes and Pueblos (who hold senior "ancestral" rights), and municipal governments. In short, nobody "owns" the river entirely; it is a shared resource bound by strict binational and interstate compacts.

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According to Article 2 of the Water Treaty, the jurisdiction of the IBWC extends to the border sections of the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo) and the Colorado River, the land boundary between the United States and Mexico, and works located upon their common boundary.

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Rio Grande, port city, southeastern Rio Grande do Sul estado (state), southern Brazil. The city lies along the Rio Grande (river), which is the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean of the Patos Lagoon. It is built on a low peninsula, barely 5 feet (1.5 metres) above sea level and 8 miles (13 km) from the river's mouth.

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Today, the 20th-longest river in the world is also one of the ten most endangered. The Rio Grande is still vital to its communities and visitors: agriculture, mining, and recreation are the three top industries along this river and form the base of our local economy. It's our responsibility to keep it thriving!

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A 196-mile strip of land on the American side of the Rio Grande in the Chihuahuan Desert protects the river. The Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River is managed as a unit of the national park system by Big Bend National Park.

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Although snowmelt from the San Juan Mountains of Colorado (Fig. 7) is a major source of water for the Rio Grande, runoff from northern Mexico also contributes to its flow. As in all arid to semiarid regions, the waters of the Rio Grande River are highly sought after and overallocated.

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The Rio Grande River in the United States, known as the Río Bravo (or, more formally, the Río Bravo del Norte) in Mexico, is a river, 1,885 miles (3,034 km) long, and the fourth longest river system in the United States.

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The name Río Grande means great river in Spanish. The source of the Río Grande is in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado. It flows through the U.S. states of Colorado and New Mexico, and Texas, and forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas.

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Key Facts & Information
  • The Rio Grande is the fifth longest river in North America (1,900 miles).
  • It forms a border between Texas and Mexico.
  • The Rio Grande begins in the Rocky Mountains and flows into the Gulf of Mexico in the south.
  • The watershed of the Rio Grande is approximately 335,000 square miles.


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