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<br />. <br /> <br /><:) <br /><:) <br />..... <br />CD <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The Basin states, acting through the Forum, initially responded to this regulation by <br />developing and submitting to the EPA a report entitled Water Quality Standards for Salinity <br />Including Numeric Criteria and Plan of Implementation for Salinity Control - Colorado River <br />System dated June 1975, Since the states' initial adoption, the water quality standards have been <br />reviewed every three years (1978,1981, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1993 and 1996) as required by Section <br />303(c)(I) of the Clean Water Act. <br /> <br />The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act was amended in 1984 by P,L. 98-569 to <br />authorize two additional units for construction by Reclamation, The amendments directed the <br />Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to give preference to the salinity control <br />units with the least cost per unit of salinity reduction, The Act was also amended to establish a <br />voluntary on-farm salinity control program to be implemented by the Department of Agriculture and <br />provided for voluntary replacement of incidental fish and wildlife values foregone on account of the <br />on-fann measures, Many cost-effective salt-load reducing activities were accomplished in the <br />decade following that authorization,P,L. 98-569 also directed the Bureau of Land Management <br />(BLM) to implement salinity controls. <br /> <br />Reclamation and the Forum, in 1994, concluded that the existing Act, as amended, with its <br />unit-specific approach and authorization ceiling, was limiting salinity control opportunities. In 1995, <br />the Act was amended by P.L. 104-20 to authorize an entirely new way of implementing salinity <br />control. Reclamation's new Basinwide Salinity Control Program opens the program to competition <br />through a public process and has greatly reduced the cost of salinity control. An additional $75 <br />Million of expenditures by Reclamation were authorized by P ,L. 104-20, <br /> <br />The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act (FAIRA) of 1996 (p.L, 104-127) <br />further amended the D,S, Department of Agriculture's (USDA) role in salinity control by creating <br />a new conservation program known as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) which <br />combined four conservation programs, includigg USDA's Colorado River Basin salinity control <br />program, F AIRA provided authority for funding the nationwide EQIP through the year 2002, <br />USDA has created rules and regulations concerning how EQIP funds are to be allocated, The past <br />authority for the states to cost-share from the Basin funds was retained in the new EQIP program <br />with linkage to Reclamation's authority to distribute Basin funds for cost-sharing. <br /> <br />Figure 1-1 displays a cwnulative estimation of the armual salt removal by the Colorado River <br />Basin salinity control program, <br /> <br />1-3 <br /> <br />