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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />municipal and industrial point sources contributed a total <br />of only one percent of the basin salt load for the period <br />1942-61 (page 16, Appendix C, Commission, 1975). <br /> <br />Removal of water from the Colorado River for <br />beneficial uses, whether by consumptive use within the <br />River Basin or for transmountain diversion to the east <br />slope of Colorado may have some concentrating effect upon <br />the salt load of the River. However" the Commission is well <br />aware that the heart of Colorado's constitutionally based <br />doctrine of water.rights is the right in Colorado citizens <br />to appropriate quantities of water and consume water for <br />beneficial uses. The removal or water from the stream, as <br />in the Northern District and Municipal Subdistrict projects, <br />is not a contribution of salt, or. a,ny" other pOllut,ant for <br />that matter, to the stream. Congress"in enacting the 1972 <br />FWPCA and the 1977 Clean WaterA<:t was. careful to.'respect the <br />water rights laws of the States,.,-' the d.i.rect jurisdiction given <br />to EPA consists of the promulgation and enforcement of technology, <br />based effluent limitations enforced through the NPDES permit <br />system. The effluent limitations thus set must take into <br />account the technical and economic av~Ylability of treatment <br />methods. <br /> <br />I submit for the commission's consideration and as <br />part of the record of these proceedings,' a paper prepared by <br />Mr. Hobbs and presented recently to the Colorado Water Congress, <br />of which I am currently Vice-President.: It contains a dis- <br />cussiop of the pertinent laws relating to water quality and <br />water rights. We believe this paper , demonstrates that EPA <br />was not granted jurisdiction to solve eyerY,lwate!: quality.' <br />effect, no matter how caused. Certainly Congress did not <br /> <br />intend to prohibit or <br /> <br />condition <br /> <br />~~e appropriation <br /> <br />""'.;= ,.f::3';-O"" <br />...,... ....................... <br /> <br />for beneficial use. The act of appropriation may remove <br /> <br />-9- <br /> <br />., <br /> <br />1460 <br />