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~fv:J .:':J I~\: .,...j c~ (.) ,'.'~ AQUATRAIN April 1983 Section 4. The Salinity Problem All agricultural source units plus those under construction combined would extract about one-half (1.2 million tons) of the 2.1 to 2.8 million tons of salt required for annual removal by the year 2010. The remainder of the salt removal Objective must be attained by using or disposing of about one-half of the 600,000 acre-feet of saline water that enters the river each year. In the Colorado River Water Quality Improvement Program, several techniques can be used in concert to achieve maximum water quality benefits and to preserve the finite amount of water in the river. AQUATRAIN appears to be one of the ~st attractive saline vater use alternatives in terms of timeliness, cost-effectiveness, and beneficial use--rather than waste--of saline water. The proposed AQUATRAIN collection and transport system would intercept about 75,000 acre-feet of the 600,000 acre-feet of highly saline water that now flows into and contaminates the Colorado River. AQUATRAIN could extract one-fourth to one-third (about 700,000 tons) of the annual salt load required for removal to meet water quality standards. Staged construction is being considered to match salt water use to salinity control schedule requirements. Cost sharing by private industry, Federal, and State interests is anticipated. Desalting plants or evaporation ponds--the least costly salinity control alternatives after AQUATRAIN--could cost taxpayers between $4-8 billion (1982 constant dollars) and would have far more severe energy use and environmental impacts. AQUATRAIN would go a step beyond other salinity control measures. The multipurpose pipeline system, created through human ingenuity, could turn damaging, unwanted water into a usable resource. In a world of finite resources, this is a notable accomplishment. 15