WSP00051

• File Number: 8272.100.60
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 5/1/1990
• Author: CRBSCF
• Title: Report on the 1990 Review - Water Quality Standards for Salinity - Colorado River System
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

SCS published its report on Moapa Valley in February 1981 and the
draft EIS is scheduled for publication near the end of 1990.
f;.'"
ob~ In 1989, the Nevada State Legislature appropriated $500,000
o for implementation, contingent upon matching funds from Clark
~ County and The Muddy Valley Irrigation Company.

Glenwood Springs (Reclamation). The Glenwood Springs Unit is
located along the Colorado River in Eagle, Garfield, and Mesa
Counties in west-central Colorado. Combined discharges from a
number of springs annually contribute approximately 440,000 tons
of salt, mostly sodium chloride.

A proposal for a federal-private project at Glenwood Springs
has been submitted by Energy Ingenuity and Mission Energy
Companies. The proposal calls for a cogeneration project with a
25 MW gas fired generating unit with the waste heat being used for
desalting a portion of the Glenwood Springs flows. The proposal
would require no funding of construction by the federal government.
Reclamation would pay for the removal of and disposal of 73,000
tons of salt annually. Payments would be made at the time of
disposal at a unit cost competitive with other salinity control
uni ts identified in the plan of implementation. The Forum has
recommended that Reclamation move forward with the proposal and has
prepared draft legislation for introduction into Congress
authorizing the unit.

San Juan River (Reclamation). San Juan River Unit
investigat:.c~ ~,ea includes the entire 23,000 square mile watershed
from its headwaters in south-central Colorado to its mouth at Lake
Powell. The drainage contributes approximately one million tons
of salt annually to the Colorado River basin. The study area
covers many thousands of square miles of public lands as well as
agricultural, municipal, and industrial areas which may contribute
controllable salt. Most of the natural source of salt is
contributed by surface runoff and ground water discharqe from the
Nacimiento Fc~m~tion and Mancos shale. Many thousands of acres of
vegetation along the streams and washes co~tribute to salt
concentration. Irrigation projects, coal-fired powerplants,
surface mining operations, oil and gas fields, and refinery
operations contribute to the river's salinity.

Ini tial investigations indicate that the Hammond Proj ect,
Navajo Indian Irrigation Proj ect (NIIP), and the Hogback Irrigation
Project (also a Navajo Indian project) are the principal irrigation
sources of salt in the basin, with control on the Hammond Project
being cost effective.

In the Hammond area, Reclamation completed 'its plan
formulation activities in 1989 and will begin to prepare a Draft
PR/EIS in 1990. The recommended plan proposes to line all unlined
'3ections of the Hammond Project Irrigation system. This would
entail concrete-lining 19.5 miles of the Main Canal, 3.9 miles"of
the Gravity Extension Lateral, 2.3 miles of the East Highline

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