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<br />17 <br /> <br /> <br />()')2181 <br /> <br />The framework program provides for importing 2.25 million acre-feet <br />of water annually to the Lower Colorado Region including 1.5 million <br />acre-feet, plus 0.3 million acre-feet of associated losses, to satisfy <br />the national obligation to Mexico, and 0.45 million acre-feet as a <br />regional program. Lake Mead would provide regulatory storage for the <br />imported water thus allowing maximum use of the importation facilities. <br /> <br />If the initial water importation were in operation at year 2000, <br />there would still remain a regional annual water deficiency of about <br />0.44 million acre-feet which would increase to about 2.1 million acre- <br />feet annually by 2020. Between years 2000 and 2020, an additional <br />augmentation in the amount of 1.9 million acre-feet annually is <br />recommended. Under this plan, the Region's annual deficiency in year <br />2020 would be about 0.17 million acre-feet. Pumping from ground-water <br />basins will still be required and it is expected that some ground-water <br />overdraft will continue, particularly in outlying basins remote from <br />augmentation service areas. <br /> <br />Other means of p~oviding suitable water for multipurpose uses, by <br />year 2020, include the treatment of 0.68 million acre-feet annually of <br />conventionally treated municipal and industrial waste water for reuse in <br />Clark County, Nevada, and in Maricopa and Pima Counties, Arizona; and <br />the treatment of 0.9 million acres of forest lands to increase annual <br />water yield by 0.15 million acre-feet. Augmentation of water supplies <br />in the central Arizona area could provide, through water exchanges, <br />additional water for use in upstream areas for municipal, industrial, <br />and mineral production needs, as well as for alleviating irrigation <br />water deficiencies. Reservoir storage totaling 0.4 million acre-feet <br />is provided to regulate flows for use in the upstream areas, largely <br />in the Gila Subregion. <br /> <br />Water Quality <br /> <br />High levels of dissolved mineral salts in surface and ground waters <br />are the major water quality problem in the Region. The Colorado River <br />Basin framework program for salinity improvement could remove about <br />2.3 million tons of salts annually by the year 2020, with about 2.2 mil- <br />lion tons being included in the Upper Basin portion of the program. <br /> <br />The early action salinity control program for the Colorado River <br />Basin provides for the impoundment and evaporation of flows from LaVerkin <br />Springs in Utah, which would remove more than 100,000 tons of salt <br />annually. The program for Clark County, Nevada, consists of a plant for <br />further treatment of secondary treated municipal and industrial wastes <br />in the Las Vegas area. Facilities similar to that for Clark County and <br />provisions for reuse of reclaimed water are also provided for further <br />treatment of secondary treated municipal and industrial waste water <br />occurring in the Phoenix and Tucson urban centers. <br />