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<br />of the International Boundary and Water commission, the <br />united states agreed that about 1.36 m.a.f. of the water <br />delivered to Mexico above the Morelos Dam would maintain <br />an average annual salinity of not more than 115 parts per <br />million, plus or minus 30 parts per million, over the <br />average annual salinity at Imperial Dam. Under this <br />standard, the salt content of the Mexican water would <br />generally be limited to about 1000 parts per million. <br />In 1974 Congress enacted the Salinity control Act <br />not only to implement this international accord, but also <br />to undertake a basin-wide program to control salinity in <br />the Colorado River. The Salinity Control Act initially <br />authorized the construction of four salinity control <br />projects and has been amended to authorize numerous <br />others. The largest project is a desalinization plant <br />at Yuma, Arizona, which has cost at least $500 million <br />to construct thus far. The Act also sanctions an array <br />of other methods to control salinity, including canal <br />lining, proj ects to reduce the flow of particularly <br />saline irrigation water, and the circumvention or <br />deflection of saline water from natural sources. The <br />projects are to be financed by the federal government, <br />but repaid in part from money in the Upper Colorado River <br /> <br />-29- <br />