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<br />..- <br />JA <br />-..J <br />00 <br /> <br />Honorable Gordon H. Smith <br />Chairman, Subcommittee on Water and Power <br />Committee on Energy and Natural Resour~es <br />Uniled Staks Senate <br />Washington, D.C. 20510 <br /> <br />RE: Support for S. 12 I I, Amendment to the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act <br /> <br />Dear Honor"bk Smith: <br /> <br />As a membcr of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum, repre5enting the Central <br />Arizona Water Conservation District, 1 urge lhm you support S. 1211 which increases the funding <br />ceiling for the U.S. Department of the Interior for the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control <br />Program. Although background information has been provided to you and the subcommittee by <br />Mr. Jack Bamell, Execulive Director of the Forum, I would like to underscore the importance of <br />this progr"ll1 to the users of the Central Arizona Project (CAP). <br /> <br />Arizona intense'ly manages its limited water supplies. The most important water supply to the <br />citizens of Arizona is the Colorado River. It is the single, largest renewable water supply fDr the <br />citizens of Arizona. The CAP allow5 central Arizona to conjunctively manage a portion of the <br />state's CDlor:lc!o River supply along with the dwindling groundwater supplies. Nearly all of our <br />irrigated agriculture, industries, and municipalities use Colorado River water. Colorado River <br />water is also being recharged and stored underground 10 offset future droughts. After the water <br />has been uscd once by industry and domestic water users, we recycle Colorado River water for <br />use by golf COUIWS and other users. Salt is a Ihreal to the quality Df this water supply. <br /> <br />Removing s:ill from the water supply is becoming an important water managemenl issue. Just <br />recently, the city of Phoenix and the Bureau of Reclamation co-hosted a forum on Emerging <br />Salinily Issue, that was attended by most of CAP's municipal waler suppliers. The state's water <br />utility managers are considering ho\V to economically control salts to meel growing customer <br />concerns over \Vater supplies. These same utility managers must remove and dispose of salts to <br />reclaim water fur recycling. The processes to remove these salts is very expensive and the costs <br />rise directly wilh the amount of salt in the source water. <br /> <br />The Salinily Control Program has proven that salt can be kept from entering the river. Most <br />importantly, keeping salt frolll entering the river costs only one, tenth as much as desalling Ihe <br />source water, The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation estimates that over 600,000 tons of salt are being <br />comrollect '"111ually as a result of this program. To ensure thai the salinity of the Colorado River <br />