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<br />o <br />o <br />'..... <br />00 <br /> <br />Nothing in this report shall be construed to alter, amend, repeal, interpret, modify, or be in <br />conflict with the provisions of the Boulder Canyon Project Act (45 Stat. 1057), the Boulder Canyon <br />Project Adjustment Act (54 Stat. 774), the Colorado River Basin Project Act (82 Stat. 885), the <br />Colorado River Compact, the Colorado River Storage Project Act (70 Stat. 105), the Upper Colorado <br />River Basin Compact, or the Treaty with the United Mexican States (Treaty Series 994), <br /> <br />History and Background <br /> <br />In the 1960's and early 1970's, the seven Colorado River Basin states' and representatives <br />ofthe Federal Government discussed the problem of salinity levels increasing in the lowe~ reaches <br />of the Colorado River. In 1972, the Federal Government enacted the Clean Water Act which <br />mandated efforts to maintain water quality standards in the United States. At the same time, Mexico <br />and the United States were discussing the increasing salinity of Colorado River water being <br />delivered to Mexico, <br /> <br />The Basin states established the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum in 1973, The <br />Forum is composed of representatives from each of the seven Basin states appointed by the <br />governors of the respective states, The Forum was created for interstate cooperation and to provide <br />the states with the information necessary to comply with Section 303(a) and (b) of the Clean Water <br />Act, j <br /> <br />Congress enacted the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act (P,L. 93-320) (the Act) in <br />June of 1974 with the Forum's support, Title I of the Act addresses the United States' cornmitment <br />to Mexico and provided the means for the United States to comply with the provisions of Minute <br />No, 242, Title II of the Act created a water quality program for salinity control in the United States, <br />Primary responsibility for the federal program was given to the Secretary of the Interior, with the <br />J3i7reau of Reclamation (Reclamation) being instructed to investigate and build several salinity <br />control units, The Secretary of Agriculture was instructed to support the effort within existing <br />authorities (see Chapter 4 for more detail regarding these authorities), <br /> <br />The EP A promulgated a regulation in December 1974, which set forth a basinwide salinity <br />control policy for the Colorado River Basin, The regulation specifically stated that salinity control <br />was to be implemented while the Basin states continue to develop their compact-apportioned water. <br />This regulation also established a standards procedure, and required,the Colorado River Basin states <br />to adopt and submit for approval to the EP A water quality standards for salinity, including numeric <br />criteria and a plan of implementation, consistent with the policy stated in the regulation. A copy of <br />the regulation is included in Appendix A, <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />'The seven Colorado River Basin states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and . <br />Wyoming) are referred herein as the "Basin states," <br /> <br />1-2 <br />