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<br />000810 <br /> <br />Desalination has great potential <br />but is costly <br /> <br />Techniques of desalting geother~al brines and seawater <br />have been demonstrated and proven, but to date they are too <br />expensive to use in increasing the basin's usable water <br />supply. For example, the Bureau's program to desalinate <br />geothermal water from reservoirs in the I~perial Valley in <br />California has denonstrated that expensive fresh water can <br />be produced. The estimated costs vary fro~ $1,200 to $1,500 <br />per acre-foot for producing 50,000 acre-feet of fresh water. <br />Because of these high costs and low water yields, the Bureau <br />has ter~inated its geothernal investigations in the Inperial <br />Valley but is still investigating other possible locations <br />in the basin. <br /> <br />Importing water into the basin <br />may not be possible <br /> <br />Importing surplus water from areas outside the Colorado <br />River Basin may be technically possible, but not econo~ically, <br />socially, or politically feasible. Although this solution <br />could solve the basin's supply problems for years to come, <br />the Bureau has not studied the prospects of inporting water <br />from the Columbia River Basin because of a la-year moratorium <br />on such studies in the 1968 Colorado River Basin Act. The <br />moratorium was recently extended another 10 years in the <br />Bureau of Recla~ation Safety of Dans Act. An interesting <br />sidelight is that several States export portions of their <br />allocated water from the basin. <br /> <br />A controversy nay develop over the rights to the water <br />produced under an augnentation program. So~e State repre- <br />sentatives believe that any increased runoff resulting fron <br />weather modification, vegetation nanaqenent, or water salvage <br />will accrue to the States and not to the Federal Governnent. <br />If this is true, any water produced as part of the augmenta- <br />tion progran could not be used to satisfy the national <br />obligation to l,eet the cOI1~itnent to rlexico and help neet <br />any demands and connit~ents for additional water in the <br />basin, as stated in the 1968 Colorado River Basin Project <br />Act. (See app. V, p. 75.) <br /> <br />CONCLUSIONS <br /> <br />The Bureau estimates a water shortage will occur in the <br />basin around 2020; yet this estinate could be optinistic. <br />Despite the as yet unanswered questions on severity and <br />timing of the water shortage, nuch could be done to delay <br /> <br />22 <br />