BOARD00714

• Board Meeting Date: 7/9/1975
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

PARADOX VALLEY UNIT, COLORADO

Introduction

Paradox Valley, located in Montrose County of southwestern Colorado,
has been identified as a significant natural contributor to salinity in
the Colorado River Basin. The Bureau of Reclamation is conducting a
basin-wide program to minimize saliuity levels in the Colorado River
system. The ultimate objective would be to limit any further increases I
in salinity while the Upper Basin States - parts of Utah, Arizona, New
Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado - continue to develop their water resources.
Title II of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act (Public Law
93-320) of June 24, 1974, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to
construct, o?erate, and maintain fovr salinity control units, referred
to as units, in the Colorado River Basin in order to control salinity.
The units include Las Vegas Wash, Nevada; Crystal Geyser, Utah; Grand
Valley, Colorado; and Paradox Valley, Colorado.

Studies conducted over the last three years by the Bureau of Reclamation
have indicated that the Dolores River picks up approximately 200,000
tons of salt annually in Paradox Valley from a natural source and dis-
charges the salt into the Colorado River northeast of Moab, Utah. The
salinity of the Colorado River has been increasing, particularly in
the Lower Basin states - parts of Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada,
and New Mexico - as a result of man's use and reuse of the river. About
10 million tons of salt are now carried by the river each year, posing
economic problems for water users because of lower crop yields and
increased treatment costs. The total costs of salinity in the Lower
Basin were about $53 million in 1973 and could reach $124 million
annually by the year 2000 if corrective measures are not taken and if
development continues.

Paradox Valley Description

Paradox Valley, about 24 miles in length from northwest to southeast
and ~bout 3 t05 miles wide, is crossed near its midpoint by the
Dolores River. The surrounding walls of brilliantly-colored sandstone
and shale layers are quite steep and rugged, while the floor itself
is relatively flat. Economic activity consists of about 3,600 acres
of privately irrigated cropland in the northwestern half of the valley,
livestock grazing, mining and oil exploration, and a lumber mill in the
town of Paradox. The climate of the valley is generally semiarid,
typically hot and dry during the summer and cold and dry during the
winter. The average precipitation at the town of Paradox is 10.8 inches
per year. Much of this precipitation occurs during the summer, pri-
marily from thunderstorms of brief duration.

I

Paradox Valley is one of.five major collapsed salt anticlines (elongated
swells) in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. The region is
about 100 miles long and is marked by the protruding mass of the La Sal
r10untains situated prominently over its center. Paradox Valley, lying
alo!lS the a;l:is of one of the largest anticlines, has been formed by
the erosion of faulted and uplifted sandstone and shale formations,

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