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<br />16 <br /> <br />the Colorado River, For instance, the central to lower reach of the <br /> <br />w <br />~ Dirty Devil-River, from Hanksville to Lake Powell, carries low <br />l'V <br />~. quality water, but the exact delineation of the areas contributing <br /> <br />most of the dissolved constitutents is not specified. This generality <br /> <br />in assigning a given salinity to a long channel reach and its immedi- <br /> <br />ate tributaries may be misleading to government officials whose duty <br /> <br />it is to plan the reduction of salt yields from diffuse source areas. <br /> <br />It is also very general because the water quality data upon which this <br /> <br />and other similar maps (e.g., Iorns, Hembree and Oakland, 1965) are <br /> <br />based is very meager, Most of it is derived from samples taken from <br /> <br />main stems or main tributary basins (from which little can be con- <br /> <br />cluded about the source areas) or from mountainous watersheds yield- <br /> <br />ing very high quality runoff. Note, for example, that there are only <br /> <br />four locations in the Utah section of the Upper Basin (Fig, 1,8) <br /> <br />where both chemical quality and sediment discharges are recorded, and <br /> <br />all are on large rivers; in addition, there are only nine sections, <br /> <br />all in rivers draining more than 100 square miles, for which water <br /> <br />quality data is available (for some, this includes merely two analyzed <br /> <br />water samples per year). Also, note that all sites where data were <br /> <br />obtained on the specific conductance of surface water (Fig. 1-8) are <br /> <br />for large rivers or small mountain streams, <br /> <br />Although the identification of major source areas of salts is <br /> <br />not sufficient to delineate potential salinity hazard areas, it is <br /> <br />interesting to note that the watersheds within the Upper Basin with <br /> <br />high sediment yields occupy the terrain of the major source areas of <br /> <br />salts. This areal correspondence may point to a causal relationship <br /> <br />between sediment transport and solute pickup. <br />