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WATER QUALITY PROGRAM IN THE UPPER COLORADO RIVER BASIN (Information relative to the Water Q;tality Program in the Upper Colorado River Basin has been obtained from the United States Department of the Interior, Bureaus of Reclamation and Land Management, and the United States Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service.) Title II of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act, Public Law 93-320 (approved June 24,1974) authorized and directed the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate and maintain four salinity control units as the initial stage of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program and to expedite completion of the planning reports on twelve units. Title II also provided for the establishment of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Advisory Council. Public Law 98-569, the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act, Amendment, was passed by the 98th Congress and signed by the President on October 30, 1984. The 1984 Amendments to the Colorado River Salinity Control Act required the Secretary of the Interior to develop a comprehensive program to minimize salt contributions from lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The July 1987 Report to Congress, "Salinity Control on BLM-Administered Public Lands in the Colorado River Basin," addressed the extent of salt contributed from public lands, . current actions and future recommendations to achieve the objective of minimizing salinity contributions while recognizing multipk-use objec- tives and authorized uses. During the 1991 water year, BLM established a salinity strategy for future project funding and implementation beginning in 1994. The strategy provisions include: Phase I - ranking of watersheds in the Colorado River Basin by interagency teams: Phase II - reconnaissance plans of watersheds by interagency multidisciplinary teams who determine which areas have the best potential for improvement. The results will use Pacific Southwest Interagency Committee (PSIAC) procedures to deter- mine soil loss, sediment and quantifY benefits of potential treatments: Phase III - comprehensive plans will use the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) to estimate soil erosion. Planning will involve all users and interested publics to ensure coordination and implementation; economic analysis will be cost-effectiveness and comparable with Recla- mation and USDA procedures: Phase IV - implementation will be accomplished as rapidly as funding is available, and all after 1994 will have 66