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w '" ..... ..... indicates that power from solar ponds may be developed into an economically competitive source of power. If so, there may be opportunities to improve the apparent unacceptably high costs of long distance transport of saline wastewater through a joint use concept with solar pond development. Saline wastewat,er could be used to develop sol ar ponds either at local sites or in dry 1akebeds. Wastewater and b10wdown collection and disposal service were also examined for energy development sites located near saline water pipeline collection systems. The costs of final disposal of wastewater or b10wdown under zero discharge requirements for utilities in the Basin are significant. The unit costs of wastewater transport/export were compared against alternative costs for the utilities to dispose of wastew.ater individually by desalting or evaporating. If a long-distance, pipeline is developed for other pur- poses, economies of scale may make wastewater collection and disposal a viable alternative. Composite Alternative Plans Additional study is needed to analyze adequately the potential of composite alternative plans. These alternatives could combine and optimize the dif- ferent components and uses of saline water. Composite plans could include local use, wastewater disposal, coal slurry pipelines, salt gradient ponds, and other energy-related uses. Overall planning would integrate these various components into Basin-wide plans that would include staged develop- ment depending on needs of the salinity control program and various energy projects. Major Issues and Concerns Several issues and concerns were expressed during the course of the study related to water rights, compact allocations, saline water use technol- ogy, environmental impacts, institutional arrangements, and financial imp 1 i cat ions. The water rights and allocation issue can be subdivided into three c ategor i es: 1. Current procedures for diverting saline water under State Water Law are unclear, particularly since (1) some States do not recognize salinity control as a beneficial use, and (2) only implied authority exists to purchase needed diversion rights from existing water rights holders for salinity control purposes. There is no uniform implementa- tion of the Forum's policy of promoting saline water use in the Basin States. 2. Since a majority of the salinity control opportunities are in Colorado and Utah, potential exists for placing an inordinate depletion burden on those States if substantial volumes of water must be removed from the river system. 10