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<br /> <br />OJIGu8 <br /> <br /> Flow Salinity Concentration <br />Stream (1000 AF) (m~/l) <br />Green River near Green <br />River, Wyoming 1,240 323 <br />Green River at Green <br />River, Utah 4,078 473 <br />Colorado River near Glenwood <br />Springs, Colorado 1,418 310 <br />Colorado River near Cis co, <br />Utah 4,643 662 <br />San Juan River near Bluff, <br />Utah 1,596 461 <br />Colorado River at Lee <br />Ferry, Arizona 10,376 609 <br /> <br />Although salinity is considered the most serious water quality problem, <br />energy development poses potential problems of added municipal wastes, <br />industrial wastes, dissolved oxygen content, temperature, heavy metals, <br />toxic materials and bacteria. Localized quality problems can occur on <br />minor tributaries in the Uppe~ Basin, unless the Water Pollution Control <br />Act, Amendments of 1972 are strictly enforced. Sediment production could <br />be a very significant problem in the oil shale industry. Whereas water <br />qualities are not critical in the Upper Basin, as progressively downstream <br />reuse occurs additional salts are added and concentrated to the degree <br />that a serious degradation occurs for the final users in the Lower Basin <br />and in Mexico. <br /> <br />The most recent studies by the Bureau of Reclamation have shown annual <br />economic losses of $230,000 per mg/l increase in salinity at Imperial Dam. <br /> <br />Ground Water - Ground water offers a potential short-term and supplemental <br />source of water required for energy development in the Upper Colorado <br />River Basin. Estimates of the minimum amount of ground water in storage <br />in the upper 100 feet of the saturated geohydrologic units, based on <br />available specific yield data, range from 50 million to 115 million acre- <br />feet. Specific yield is the ratio of the volume of water that rock <br />material, after being saturated, will yield by gravity to the volume of <br />the rock material. The total amount in storage below this zone is many <br />times this amount; however, data are not available on which to base <br />reliable estimates. Although, in many parts of the basin, productive <br />aquifers are several thousand feet below the surface, this fact alone <br />does not appear to be a severe constraint on development of ground water <br />for energy-related uses. <br /> <br />The average annual rep1enishab1e ground water supply in the basin is <br />about 4 million acre-feet, which is the quantity represented by <br />the total of: (1) base flow of streams, (2) evapotranspiration, <br />(3) pumpage from wells, and (4) subsurface movement out of the <br /> <br />34 <br /> <br />