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<br />Pitt et ai, August 2001. Replacing the Bypass Flow On The Colorado River <br /> <br />Recent volatility in the power market suggests that ~OR's cost estimate for YDP operation is <br />low.47 The YDP requires approximately 170 tnilli4n kWh per year of electrical energy to <br />operate at full capacity.48 Approximate cost on the "$pot market" for this amount of power at <br />present rates (August, 2001) would be $8 million p~r year.49 Because BaR is authorized to <br />operate the YDP with power from the Navajo Generating Station,so today's higher electricity <br />rates may not be reflected directly in the cost to operate the YDP. However, operation of the <br />YDP would consume a portion of Navajo Generating- Station's energy production c'Wacity and <br />thus, reduce the amount of power that would otherwise be available to other USers, If BOR <br />does not assume the increased power costs, someone lilse will. Incorporating present day power <br />rates would bring the total cost of water treated at the yuP to over $370 per acre.foot. <br /> <br />At a cost of $370 per acre.foot to desalt irrigation water, the YDP is not a cost.effective salinity <br />control measure by any standard. If BOR is to comply with 1984 and 1995 amendments to the <br />CRBSCA, then operation of the YDP as a potential alternative must be eliminated. Additionalli' <br />with annual costs of approximately $2.2 million to maintain on "ready reserve". status, 2 <br />pennanent decommissioning of the plant should be strongly considered. Decommissioning the <br />YDP would cut the project's future losses and may! allow other, more cost-effective, salinity <br />control measures to be implemented. <br /> <br />Environmental Impacts ofYDP Operation <br />Were theYDP to function at full capacity treating WMIDD drainwater, the Cienega de Santa <br />Clara would he destroyed due to the reduced volume and increased salinity of the bypass flow in <br />the MODE. At full operating capacity, the YDP is designed to process 97,300 acr~-feet of <br />Wellton-Mohawk drainwater (2,900 ppm), pro<\ucing 68,500 acre.feet of plant product water <br />(295 ppm) imd 28,800 acre-feet of reject water (9,409 ppm). Return flow to the Colorado River <br />is estimated to be 78,600 acre-feet of blended water (68,500 acre-feet of plant product water <br />mixed with 10,100 acre-feet' of Wellton-Mohawk drainwater).53 YDP reject water would be <br />disposed into the MODE, and the salinity of water flowing to the Cienega de Santa Clara would <br />increase more than threefold, compounded by an app~oximate 70% decrease in flows. <br /> <br />47 BaR estimates $3,8 million for power of the $21.1 million annual operating cost. <br />48 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (1990). "Yuma Desalting Plant P,ower Alternatives" 4/19/90 memo on file with <br />author. i <br />49 Power costs are estimated using Salt River Project (Opetatingiand Marketing Agent for Navajo Oenerating <br />Station) Standard Price Plan for Primary Large Oeneral Service '(E-63), made effective on May 15, 2000 and <br />Western Area Power Administration wheeling charges for Nav~io Station and Central Arizona Project. <br />"Pub, L. 98-381, title I, Sec, 107, Aug, 17,1984,98 Stat. 1339, <br />'I Through participation in the construction of the Navajo Oenetating Station, the Bureau of Reclamation has a <br />24,3% (546,750 kWh) annual share of energy produced at the p!ant. Bureau of Reclamation's power share that is <br />not used by Central Arizona Project (CAP) or Yuma Desalting ~Iant (YDP) is sold to other participants in the <br />Station or to Southern California Edison through the Navajo Power Marketing Plan adopted on December 1987. <br />Further explanation can be found online at: <http://dataweb,usbr.\lovlhtmllcrbpcan.html> and <br /><hltD://www.ena.Qov/fedrastr/EPA-IMPACT/2000IDecelhher/Ii)av-11/i31442.htm> . <br />52 BaR has used figures ranging from $1.5-2.3 million annuall~ to keep the YDP in ready reserve status, with the <br />difference of $800,000 for equipment costs. John Redlinger, Dqputy Area Manager, Boulder Canyon Operations <br />Office, Bureau of Reclamation, personal communication 8/15/QI. Others have reported that keeping the YDP in <br />ready reserve status costs BaR up to $6.8 million annually. See Pontius, supra note 46. <br />53 See Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act; Yumal)esalting Complex Unit, Engineering Data website: <br /><htto://dataweb,usbr,aovlhtmIncvdsenadata,html>, ' <br /> <br />12 <br />