 On average the El Paso County diverted into the Riverside Diversion Dam / Riverside Canal each year between 1928 and 1998.To ensure that they got their agreed share of Rio Grande water, in 1935 Congress authorized construction of the American Dam, 
which measures the Mexican portion before it reached the international border and lets it continue along the river to the International Dam, while diverting the rest along the new long American Canal to the Franklin Canal, used to irrigate the long El Paso valley.Between 1997 and 1998 a cement-lined extension to the American Canal replaced part of the earthen Franklin Canal.