WSP09675

• File Number: 8041
• Description: 208 Clean Water Grant
• State: CO
• Date: 8/16/1982
• Author: CWCB
• Title: Quarterly Reports on the 208 Clean Water Grant for the Water Quality Control Division of the Coloradio Dept of Health
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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3752

EPA-The Mineral Quality Problem

The EPA study produced a salt budget for the Colorado River
from Cameo to just inside the state line (excluding the
Gunnison). For the period May 1965 to June 1966, this segment of
the river yielded 784,700 tons of dissolved solids. The salt
budget is shown below.

Source

TDS lDad
(tons/year)

Percent of
Total Load

TOTAL

16,100
5,800
32,800
730,000
784,700

2.1
.7
4.2
93.0

Industrial Effluents.
Municipal Effluents
Runoff
Irrigation

During the study period, direct discharge of effluent from
the Climax Uranium Mill at Grand Junction contributed a salt load
of 13,000 tons per year to the system. Approximately 3,100 tons
of dissolved solids per year in effluent from the American
Gilsonite Corporation Plant near Fruita made up the remainder of
total salt load attributed to industrial effluents.

Effluent from the Grand Junction-South Sewage Treatment
Plant and Grand Junction-West Sewage Treatment Plant contributed
1,800 and 4,000 tons of dissolved solids per year respectively.

Irrigation of 88,000 acres of soils underlain by highly
soluble Mancos Shale in the Grand Valley added about 703,000 tons
of dissolved solids annually to the Colorado River. The 8 tons
per acre per year average yield for this irrigated area was the
highest observed in the Colorado River Basin during the study
period.

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