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<br /> <br />(:J <br />'-:1 <br />~ <br />CD <br />~ <br />tv <br /> <br />The LaVerkin Springs are located in a 1,800-foot-long reach of the <br />Tempoweap Canyon of the Virgin River in southwestern Utah.. The <br />springs discharge about 8,300 acre-feet of water and 109,000 tons of <br />salt each year. A feasibility study shows 103,000 tons of this salt <br />could be removed annually. <br /> <br />The plan of development at LaVerkin Springs calls for the construction <br />of a diversion dam upstream from the springs to divert the normal <br />riverflows around the area of the springs. A control dam would be <br />located just below the springs to form a pool from which the <br />springs' flows would be pumped to the LaVerkin Desalting Plant. <br /> <br /> <br />The product water would be returned to the Virgin River through a <br />1,600-foot-long pipeline. Another pipeline would be used to pump <br />the brine from the plant to a 440-acre evaporation pond formed by <br />diking a natural depression about 3-1/2 miles away. <br /> <br />The diffuse sources whose investigation continues under authority <br />of the Act are: Big Sandy River in Wyoming, McElmb Creek near the <br />Colorado-Utah border in Colorado, and the 'Price, San Rafael and <br />Dirty Devil Rivers in Utah. <br /> <br />Big Sandy River in.Wyoming contributes approximately 180,000 tons of <br />dissolved solids annually to the Green River. Most of this salt <br />enters the Big Sandy from numerous seeps in a particular reach of <br />the river. It is estimated that about 80,000 tons could be removed <br />by treatment of the more saline flows when the stream discharge is <br />low. ' <br /> <br />Because of the low winter temperatures in the region, it may be <br />possible to apply natural freezing methods to treat the water. <br />would be pumped from the Big Sandy River, sprinkled to produce <br />piles, and then separated by natural freezing and thawing. <br /> <br />Water <br />ice <br /> <br />McElmo Creek is tributary to the San Juan River near the Colorado- <br />Utah State line. Although the creek's drainage area is only 350 <br />square miles, the salt loading is estimated to be 115,000 tons per <br />year of which about 40,000 tons could be removed by selective with- <br />drawal and evaporation or desalting. <br /> <br />Studies being made so far include measurements of return flow from <br />irrigated areas near Cortez, Colorado, and possible impoundment and <br />evaporation of Mud Creek, a tributary of McElmo Creek. <br /> <br />The Price, San Rafael and Dirty Devil Rivers originate in the mountains <br />of the Wasatch and Aquarius Plateaus and are tributary to the Green <br /> <br />6 <br />