WSP09791

• File Number: 8210.140
• Description: Colorado River Basin Organizations and Entities - Colorado River Basin States Forum
• State: CO
• Basin: Western Slope
• Date: 4/21/1971
• Author: Myron B Holburt
• Title: Colorado River Salinity Problems and Potential Solutions
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Myron B. Ho1burt, Chief Engineer ~ 804Ro
Colorado River Board of California~

COLORADO RIVER SALINITY PROBLEMS
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS *

By

The current salinity of the Colorado River causes severe
problems to irrigators in California and Arizona, some problems to
irrigators in the Upper Colorado River Basin, and affects the urban
areas in the Southern California coastal plain. In the near future
it will be a problem for urban users in Nevada, when the Southern
Nevada Project is completed and in operation. Still later, completion
of the Central Arizona Project will expand the urban and agricultural
areas affected. Thus, in the near future, over 12,000,000 people
and about 2,000,000 acres of irrigated land in Arizona, Nevada, and
California will be affected by the river's high salinity. It is a
major problem for Mexico as evidenced in statements by the President
of Mexico that salinity of the Colorado River is the single most
important issue between the United States and Mexico.

We have concluded that without measures to control salinity the
average salinity at Parker Dam, the point on the river where The
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California now diverts and
where the Central Arizona Project will divert, is projected to in-
crease from the present average of 740 parts per million parts of
water (ppm) to over 1,100 ppm by year 2000. Downstream at Imperial
Dam, the major agricultural diversion point for California and
Arizona, the comparable values are 850 ppm at present and 1,340 ppm
by the turn of the century. These projected values would cause
economic damages in the order of $40 million per year for California.
Additional damages will also occur in our neighboring states and in
Mexico.

The most prom~s~ng method we now know of to meet the salinity
problem in a timely manner is through construction of salinity control
projects which would preyent large quantities of salt from entering
the river system. There are three basic types of salinity control
projects: (1) reduction of salt coming from saline springs, (2) improve-
ment in existing irrigation projects, and (3) prevention of mixing of
low salinity surface water and high salinity ground water. To date,
a number of projects have been identified on a reconnaissance level
basis. If these projects were to be constructed, they would remove
approximately 2.8 million tons of salt per year from the river's
system--about 25 percent of the 11.4 million tons of salt estimated
to reach Hoover Dam each year by the turn of the century. Construc-
tion of the identified projects would result in the salinity at

* Presented to the Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation of
the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, House of Representa-
tives, at La Verne, California, April 15, 1971