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. The following paragraphs briefly describe the Reclamation and USDA units included in the recommended plan of implementation, Detailed information on each unit can be fOW1d in the following reports; Quality of Water - Colorado River Basin, Progress Report No, 19, January 1999, U.S, Department of the Interior, U.S, Bureau of Reclamation, o o .0::- N Monitoring and Evaluation Report - for each of the salinity control units currently being implemented by the USDA Colorado River Salinity Control Program, Five Reclamation W1its (Meeker Dome, Las Vegas Wash, Grand Valley, Paradox and DoloreslMcElmo) are all essentially completed, These units are preventing 375,500 tons of salt per year from reaching the Colorado River. Paradox Vall(Y (Reclamation); Local ground water comes into contact with the top of a natural salt formation where it becomes nearly saturated with sodium chloride and surfaces in the Dolores River channel in Paradox Valley, Colorado, The river picks up over 205,000 tons of salt annually from this saline groW1d water source as it passes through the valley, . The salinity control program involves pumping the saline groW1d water, thereby lowering the water table and reducing saline inflows to the Dolores River. The pumped brine is injected into a deep well in the Paradox Valley, About 128,000 tons of salt are being removed annually by this unit. There is the potential to increase this to 180,000 tons/year if sulfates can be removed from the brine prior to injection, The injection well, the brine pipeline, the surface treatment building, and the injection building have been completed and tested, The facility went into operation in Fiscal Year(FY) 1997, Grand Valley (fI.eclamation and USDA); The area within the Grand Valley Unit in western Mesa COW1ty, Colorado, contributes 580,000 tons of salt annually to the Colorado River. Most of the salts are leached from the soil and underlying Mancos Formation by groW1d water that is recharged by deep percolation from canal and lateral leakage and on-farm application, The Reclamation program in the Grand Valley Unit was implemented in two stages, Stage 1, encompassing about 10 percent of the unit area, consisted of concrete lining 6.8 miles of the Goverrunent Highline Canal (GHC), consolidating 34 miles of open laterals into 29 miles of pipe laterals and installing an automated moss and debris removal structure, This work was completed in April 1983 to test and demonstrate the viability of the project. Stage II construction began on the GHC system in the fall of 1986, Construction of the Price and Stubb Ditch systems started in 1991 W1der cooperative agreements with the Palisade Irrigation District and the Mesa COW1ty Irrigation District. Work on the Stage II systems was completed in 1998, The Unit is expected to reduce salt loading by 131,300 tons/year, . USDA published its plan for the Grand Valley on-farm program in 1977, and in 1980 prepared a supplement to include improvements to lateral systems, The plan, updated in 1994, 4-5