WSP08592

• File Number: 8273.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control - Federal Agencies - Bureau of Reclamation
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1984
• Author: BOR
• Title: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Project and Colorado River Water Quality Improvement Program - General Overview
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Project Overview

CRBSCP and CRWQIP

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In addition to these two criteria set forth in the act. 8
third factor. the maximum quantity of replacement
water neCe888ry, needed to be established 8S a basis (or
the identification of possible replacement sources. Early
computer modeling studies identified 42,000 acre.feet
per year 88 a maximum amount of reject that could be
expected from the desalting plant during years of maxi.
mum production. It is necessary, therefore, to iden-
tify'replacement sources which could provide 42,000
acre-feet of water in any given year. This amount may
vary somewhat since it is dependent on final sizing
studies on the desalting plant. In 1978, a status report
wall prepared on the Reject Stream Replacement Study.

Coachella Canal Unit. - This unit is involved in replac-
ing the first 49 miles of the existing unlined Coachella
Canal with 8 new concrete-lined canal. This action wiU
save most of the water that is being lost through seep-
age in the unlined reach of the canal.

The United States is entitled to temporary use of the
saved water during an interim period, for the purpose of
meeting the salinity control objectives of Minute No.
242. The interim period commences on completion of
construction of the new canal and will end the fint year
that the Secretary of the Interior delivers mainstream
. Colorado River water to Cali(ornia in an amount less
than the sum of the quantities requested by (1) the
California agencies under contracts made pursuant to
Section 5 of the Boulder Canyon Project Act, and (2)
FederaJ establishment to meet water rights acquired in
California in accordance with the Supreme Court decree
in Arizona v. California.

In connection with the reconstruction of Coachella
Canal~ the act also provides, 8S a nonBtructura} measure,
for acquisition of land on the Imperial East Mesa,
California. which receives or has been granted the right
to receive water from Imperial Irrigation District's
capacity in the Coachella Canal. About 4,200 acres of
land are involved.

Protective and Regulatory Pumping Unit. - This unit
will provide for construction of a weU field located on a
5-mile,wide strip of land along the Southerly Inlerna-
tional Boundary between Arizona and Sonora. Mexico.
Minute No. 242 limits the quantity of water pumped
from the combination of private wens and the unit well
field to 160,000 acre.feet annually. A .ignificant amount
of the water pumped by the unit will be delivered to the
Southerly International Boundary near San Luis. Ariz-
ona. This. water. when combined with the drainage and
regulatory waste flows from the Valley Division of the
Yuma Project, wiU make up the 140.000 acre.feet per
year of water delivered to Mexico at the Southerly In-
ternational Boundary. This water~ with the 1.36 mil-

3

lion acre-feet of water delivered at the Northerly Inter-
national Boundary, wiU make up the 1.5 million acre-
feet of Mexican Treaty entitlement to Colorado River
water.

A smaller portion of the water pumped will be available
for use in Arizona for agricultural and other purposes.
As a nonstructural measure, the act authorized acquisi-
tion of about 23,500 acres of land~ or interest therein,
within 5 mil"" of the Mexican Border for the well field
on Yuma Mesa.

In 1983. construction was essentially completed on the
Coachella Canal Unit and about 60 percent completed on
the Protective and Regulatory Pumping UniL Also in
1983, investigations on the replacement of the reject
stream from the Y urna Desalting Plant were completed,
and construction was underway on the Desalting Com-
plex Unit,

Power will be supplied 'to the Desalting Complex Unit by
the Department. of Energy's Parker-Davis Project Trane-
mission System, which connects the Yuma area with the
sys.tem of the utilities operating in the power supply
area. The source of the electrical energy will be the
Navajo Generating Station (Navajo Project)~ a private
development located near Page, Arizona, in which the
Bureau of Reclamation is 8 participant. This source was
developed to supply the power requirements of the
Central Arizona Project and augment the Lower Colo-
rado River Basin Fund. The power can be utilized from
the ins.ervice date of the Yuma Desalting Plant because
of the nonconcurred need of the Central Arizona Pro-
ject. Other sources are under study to pr.ovide an al-
ternate power supply. Energy for operating the well
field of the Protective and Regulatory Pumping Unit
eventuaJly wiJI be served from the same source as that
of the Yuma Desalting PlanL Because of the earlier
inservice date 8B8ociated with the well rield. power will
be supplied. on an interim basis. from the Colorado
River Storage Project.

COWRADO RIVER BASIN SALINITY
CONTROL - TITLE II

Programs Upstream From Imperial Dam

The program plan is to construct, operate, and maintain
certain works in the Colorado River Buin for control of
the salinity of water delivered to users in the United
States and Mexico.

Paradox Valley Unit, - This Colorado unit will consist
of facilities for collection and disposition of Paradox
Valley saline ground water. WeLla, pumps., pipelines, a
hydrogen-suJphide stripping plant. solar evaporation