WSP00180 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

. . w 0'} w ~ In order to speed passage of the legislation required by Minute 242, the administration agreed to the addition of Title II to P.L, 93- 320 (88 Stat. 266 [1974]). Title II was a direct result of unified action by the seven Colorado River Basin states and authorized construc- tion of four Upper Basin salinity control projects and investigation of 13 others. Under Title II, the Colorado River Water Quality Improve- ment Program was instituted within the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Now known as the Colorado River Water Quality Office, Water and Power Re- sources Service, the program coordinates all structural activities for salinity control on the Colorado River. Public Laws 92-500 and 93-320 form the cornerstone legal require- ments for salinity programs. In response to Section 103 of P.L. 92-500, the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum was created to serve as a mechanism for interstate cooperation in establishing numeric criteria for salinity. The essence of the reports issued by that body in 1975 and 1978 has been adopted by each of the states as salinity control regulations, These regulations coupled with state water pollution con- trol laws and the Clean Water Act of 1977 (P,L. 95-217) flesh out the structure of mandates for salinity control, Legal implications of water reuse. The series of federal water pollution control acts represented here by Public Laws 92-500 and 95- 217 contain positive incentives toward water reuse. Primary among them is the control over discharges exercised by the National Pollutant Dis- charge Elimination System (NPDES) permits which can determine the qual- ity of discharges or prohibit them altogether. Permits can be written in such a manner that the required pretreatment or requirements for other disposal could make reuse an economically attractive alternative. Section 208 may also be an effective tool as the area-wide wastewater management studies must devise plans to control or reduce sources of water pollution. Some completed plans provide incentives for water re- use as a means of pollution control, On the other side, state water rights statutes may present ser- ious barriers to the reuse of water. Most of the water appropriation law in the seven states is derived from the appropriation doctrfne-- "first in time, first in right." (California has some riparian waters outside of the Colorado River Basin.) This prior appropriation system gives rights to use water on a seniority basis--those who were first to put a particular amount of water from a specific source to a beneficial use hold the most valuable right. An appropriative right is for a specific amount of water as modified by the historic pattern of consump- tive use. In most instances, in the Colorado River Basin, unconsumed water from an appropriation makes up return flows which can form all or part of another's water right. Thus reuse of water on the part of one appropriator may damage the rights of others by changing the quantity of water available or the quality of water to which the user had been ac- customed, II-2