Amistad International Reservoir is located at the Texas-Mexico border, and is fed by four main tributaries: the middle Rio Grande (MRG), the Pecos, the Devils, and the Rio Conchos from Mexico. This reservoir is among the largest reservoirs in the western US, and it was built to hold 6.7 billion m3 (5.5 million acre-ft.) of water. The structure was completed in 1968, and the Reservoir was filled near its capacity by 1972. The storage declined to 3.1 billion m3 by 1985, backed up to over 4.0 billion m3 for much of 1986 through 1992, then depleted to as low as 1.5 billion m3 during the last decade, following the drought which started in 1994. Salinity of the Rio Grande at Amistad prior to reservoir construction averaged 560 mg L-1. Starting in 1975, salinity reached 700 mg L-1, and remained at that level through 1983. This was followed by a steep increase in salinity which peaked in 1988, and again in 1996. Salinity of the outflow increased to 945 mg L-1 during 1988, and during February of that year, it reached the federal secondary drinking water standard of 1,000 mg L-1. There is a concern that salinity may exceed the limit with a greater frequency in the future. This problem of salinity increase at Amistad was noted a decade ago.