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<br />I <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: Mr. Chairman, two of the items for advance planning we <br />didn't specifically put on the agenda, the Grand Valley Salinity and <br />the Paradox Salinity. Those were studies directed by Congress in an <br />attempt to alleviate some of the salinity conditions of the Colorado. <br />River. Colorado and other basin states were involved in that act of <br />Congress. These studies were directed to reducing the salinity of the <br />,Colorado River. Looking at ~he budget, it appears that 'the adminis- . <br />tration is not too~,sold on this idea. As you can see, the funds have <br />been drastically reduced for this purpose. This ~as under the Nixon , <br />Administration a very high priority item. But obviously, President <br />Ford and his people don't give it a very high priority and have dras~ <br />tically reduced the appropriation for this pu~ose. So we don't ~ow <br />whether they're going to entirely cut them out or not. When we were <br />in Grand Junction at an earlier meeting, we had a considerable <br />explanation of the salinity studies that are going on over there. <br /> <br />The Dominguez was originally a part of the Uncompahgre Improvement. It <br />has been separated out as a separate item. The Uncompahgre Improvement <br />is a stuqy dtrected to renovating the delivery systems of the <br />Uncompahgre project. That's one of the oldest reclamation projects in <br />the United States. It was built somewhere around 1906. The old struc- <br />tures were all wooden structures and they have all deteriorated over <br />the years, although they have held up remarkably well considering the <br />v project is now almost 70 years old$', The Dominguez is a part of it I <br />which involves studies on the Dominguez Reservoir site on the Gunnison <br />River upstream from Grand Junction. The principal purpose of that <br />study is two-fold. One is to stabilize the flow of th~ Gunnison for <br />irrigation in Mesa County. The other is to look at potential pump- <br />back power production on the Gunnison River. <br /> <br />The Front Range study relates to an ongoing study authorized:by Congress. <br /> <br />.,.18.,., <br />