Laserfiche WebLink
<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />We ask the conunission to take official notice, <br />and include as part of the record of these proceedings, its <br />promulgation of October 1975 entitled "Appendix C, Water <br />Quality Management Plan - Colorado River Basin, Water <br />Quality Standards for Salinity Including Numeric Criteria <br />and Plan of Implementation for Salinity Control". That <br />document, at pages 7 and ~ refers to the resolution of the <br />conferees of the seven Basin States and the Environmental <br />Protection Agency endorsing a unified' policy which recognizes <br />salinity as a basin-wide problem and the right of the Upper <br />Basin States to develop their compact waters. This same <br />resolution endorsed the salinity control program of the <br />Department of Interior, which was subsequently adopted by <br />Congress in Title II of the Colorado River' 'Basin Salinity <br />Control Act of 197,4, 43 U.S.C. ,1571, ,and cont,inues to be <br />the principal means of implementing salinity standards for <br />the Colorado River. <br /> <br />We also note, on page 61 of this same 1975 Com- <br />mission document, that salinity is not a problem within <br />Colorado; any impacts of salinity levels are felt not in <br />the Upper Basin but in the Lower Basin States of Arizona, <br />Nevada and California. Furthermore, federal lands are the' <br />source of most of the naturally occurring salts in the River <br />(page 108, Appendix C, conunission, 1975). For the years <br />1942-1961' and ,1963-'19,66, two-thirds of the' 'average annual <br />sal t load and one-half of the salt concentration at Hoover, <br />Dam was caused by natural sources .(page J.4; AppendixC, <br />Commission, 197'5).' The largest contribution of salini"l:y' <br />caused by man's activities occurs from agricultural return <br />flows, for which an NPDES permit cannot be required in view <br />of section 502(14) of the 1977 federal Clean Water Act; <br /> <br />-8- <br />