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,~:..., ~iving Rivers News and Announcements Page 1 of2 001087 Search -II Home About News Archives Campaigns Joi Take Action July 22, 2003 Cienega de Santa Clara Needs Your Support! Help the imperiled Cienega de Santa Clara in the Colorado River Delta Keep Existing. Background: Under the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act of 1974 (PL 93-320) (CRBSCA), the U.S. has had to bypass the highly saline agricultural drainage from the Wellton-Mohawk district through the MODE canal, in order to meet the salinity requirements of the Act. The discharge inadvertently revived the Cienega de Santa Clara, a rich 14,OOO-acre wetlands. The Cienega and 90% of the surrounding delta region was destroyed when water diversions from the Colorado River by the United States and Mexico left nothing but unscheduled reservoir "spills" to water the formerly two million-acre biologically diverse region. Cienega de Santa Clara under threat The 108,000 acre-feet bypass flow to Cienega represents less than one percent of the average annual flow of the Colorado River's 12-15 million acre feet. The Cienega is an incredible wetland with a diverse vegetation structure tha- supports an equally diverse population of birds and animals including the federally listed endangered Yuma clapper r- and the desert pupfish. The Yuma Desalting Plant (YDP) was built to desalinize the agricultural drainage. The plant has never operated at ml than one-third capacity and for more than a few months because it is not economically viable. The draft report, see full text of it at Bureau of Reclamation Report to Congress Regarding YDP [148k PDF File], sets out the Bureau of Reclamation's (BuRec) case for operating the YDP, thereby reducing bypass flow to the Cienega de Sar Clara. At full operating capacity, the Cienega would receive only the intensely saline brine from the YDP process, which would completely destroy the wetlandf The BuRec views the bypass flow to the Cienega as lost water because it does r count as part of the U.S. obligation of water delivery to Mexico. The YDP operations would treat Wellton-Mohawk agricultural drainage water and return it to the Colorado basin where it could included as part of treaty obligation to Mexico at the Northem International Boundary. The BuRec proposal to Congress sets the stage for the agency to receive increased funding for the YDP in 2003. Living Rivers and other environmental groups in the US and Mexico will not allow a thriving wetlands to die. Please send the Bureau a message today. Let them know that: · their report to Congress is irresponsible and unacceptable in the fallacies it includes as well as in its erroneou~ conclusion. · the phenomenal cost of operating the YDP be imposed upon taxpayers particularly in a time of national economic distress. . Cienega de Santa Clara is vital habitat that must be sustained http://www.livingrivers.net/archives/artic1e.cfin?NewsID=441 7/24/2003