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. - . 0:(01.7 support legislation which would allow Reclamation to pay indust ut of FY 92 operation and maintenance funds, for salts remo _e If an appropriate level of funding is not provided in F 1 and in future fiscal years for the Colorado River Salinity Control Program, the probability of violating water quality standards for salinity is greatly increased, To delay adequate funding today will ultimately result in the need to construct and implement a salini ty control program at significantly higher costs in the future, JUSTIFICATION The waters of the Colorado River system serve some 18 million people and irrigate approximately 1.6 million acres in the seven Colorado River Basin States, The River also provides domestic and irrigation water to Mexico, Salinity has long been recognized as one of the major problems in the River. Water users in the lower reaches of the River system have suffered significant adverse impacts due to the River's salinity, These impacts have been estimated to be in excess of $300 million a year, Without salinity control measures and with increased demands for Colorado River water in the Basin, the River's salinity is projected to significantly increase by the turn of the century, with concomitant increases in salinity damages, The Basin States' concern with the River's increasing salinity led to the creation of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum in 1973. The Forum, whose members are appointed by the governors of the respective states, developed a salinity control policy that called for maintaining salinity concentrations at or below those levels found in the lower River in 1972, while the Basin states continue to develop their compact-apportioned waters, The Forum has a continuing responsibility to see that a salinity control plan is implemented to meet the policy objectives, After discussions between the federal government, the Republic of Mexico and the seven Colorado River Basin states, the Congress enacted in 1974 the Forum-sponsored Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act (P, L. 93-320), Ti tle I of the Act established a program to reduce the concentration of salts in the Colorado River below Imperial Dam (the last diversion point in the United States) for waters being delivered to Mexico. Title I was identified by Congress as a federal commitment; The Act also established an associated program, Title II, which allowed the states and the federal government to work together to prevent salinity increases in the Colorado River above Imperial Dam, benefitting users in the Uni ted States as well as Mexico. The 1974 Act also created a Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Advisory Council, composed of gubernatorial representatives of the Basin States to advise the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency as to needed annual adjustments to the salinity control effort, 3