The Adolfo Ruiz Cortines Dam, built in 1955 is a medium-sized reservoir, located in the Mexican state of Sonora; it provides water for the Río Mayo Irrigation district.

Water then flowed towards the Pacific coast cut off the international highway and isolated several small towns.

[2] As a consequence of droughts that occurred the Adolfo Ruiz Cortinez dam on the Mayo River in Sonora had been operating erratically during 2004, which made it impossible to deliver the surface water volumes pledged to Irrigation District 038 in Río Mayo, Sonora, at the start of each agricultural cycle, and caused an overexploitation of groundwater.

In order to solve this problem, the State Water Commission of Sonora asked IMTA to determine optimal policies of joint dam-aquifer operation.

As a result, an operation policy was recommended that considers an extraction volume from the dam dependent of the storage level at the beginning of the agricultural cycle.

This policy allows to eliminate the deficit in the surface water volumes pledged to the irrigation district and reduce extractions from the Valle del Mayo aquifer.