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. systems, When fully implemented, the on-farm program will reduce the salt loading by an estimated 52,900 tons/year, Implementation is continuing under EQIP, Dolores ProiectlMcElmo Creek (Reclamation and USDA); Irrigation and other nonpoint sources in the McElmo Creek area of southwestern Colorado result in an estimated salt load of 119,000 tons/year to the Colorado River. o o ~ ,j;:o Salinity control, as an added feature of the Dolores Project, already under construction by Reclamation in 1984, was authorized by the 1984 Salinity Control Act. Reclamation modified the design ofTowaoc Canal to allow abandonment and consolidation of certain ditches, and has lined other ditches and installed piped laterals and has reduced salt loading from ditch seepage, These improvements, completed in 1996, will reduce salt loading by an estimated 23,000 tons/year, The McElmo Creek Unit plan was described in the Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) 1989 Environmental Impact Statement. The plan, updated in 1994, will remove an estimated 46,000 tons/year of salt from the Colorado River. Implementation of the plan is continuing under EQIP, San Juan River-Hammond (Reclamation and USDA); The San Juan River Unit drainage contributes approximately one million tons of salt annually to the Colorado River Basin, In the Hammond area, Reclamation has completed a planning report/EA and begun implementation, The project will line sections of the Hammond Project Irrigation system, The estimated salt load . reduction would be about 48,000 tons/year, The project is scheduled for completion in 2001. The NRCS completed an investigation in 1992 to explore the potential for a USDA program in the San Juan River Basin in the Hammond area, Investigations indicated that a USDA on-farm program is not cost-effective in this area. Price-San Rafael Rivers (Reclamation and USDA); An estimated 430,000 tons of salt annually reaches the Colorado River from these two river basins, The Price and San Rafael Rivers, tributaries of the Green River, are 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. The final planning report/EIS was completed and issued in December 1993, The preferred plan would reduce salt loading to the Colorado River by an estimated 161,000 tons/year. Portions of the project are under construction with funding from USDA's EQIP and from Reclamation's new Basinwide Program (Public Law 104-20 which, in 1995, authorized the competitive "Request for Proposal" process), USBR Basinwide ProfJram; The Act, amended in 1995 (pL 104-20), authorized the Secretary to undertake a variety of salinity control measures without returning to Congress for individual construction authorizations, and to implement salinity control measures by funding state, local, or private-sector initiatives which achieve salinity reduction, It also authorized an additional $75 Million to carry out the Title II Salinity Control Program, . 4-7