WSP00282

• File Number: 8270.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Water Quality/Salinity -- Misc Water Quality
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1967
• Author: USDOI
• Title: Quality of Water - Colorado River Basin - Progress Report No. 3 - January 1967
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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PART I. INTRODUCTION

A. Legislative Requirements

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This is the third progress report on Quality of Water in the Colo-
rado River Basin. The first report dated January 1963 was limited prin-
cipal~ to the Upper Colorado River Basin. The January 1965 report
included quality of water data pertaining to the entire Colorado River
Basin down to Imperial Dam and a projection of water quality effects to
be expected from the development of additional Federal and non-Federal
water-use projects. The 1965 report included data from 1941-61 which es-
sential~ covered the period when quality of water data were general~
available prior to the beginning of operation of the storage units and
participating projects.

The directive for preparing these reports is contained in three sep-
arate Public Laws. The authorizing legislation for the Colorado River
Storage project and participating projects, Public Law 485, 84th Congress,
Second Session, was signed by the President on April 11, 1956. Section
15 of that Public Law states, "The Secretary of the Interior is directed
to continue studies and make a report to the Congress and to the States
of the Colorado River Basin on the quality of water of the Colorado River."

A progress report to comp~ with Public Law 84-485 was in prepara-
tion when the authorizing legislation for the San Juan-Chama project and
the Navajo Indian Irrigation project (P.L. 87-483) became effective on
June 13, 1962. Section 15 of this act states, "The Secretary of the
Interior is directed to continue his studies of the quality of water of
the Colorado River system, to appraise its suitability for municipal,
domestic, and industrial use and for irrigation in the various areas in
the United States in which it is used or proposed to be used, to estimate
the effect of additional developments involving its storage and use
(whether heretofore authorized or contemplated for authorization) on the
remaining water available for use in the United States, to study all pos-
sible means of improving the quality of such water and of alleviating
the ill effects of water of poor quality, and to report the results of
his studies and estimates to the Eighty-seventh Congress and every two
years thereafter."

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A few weeks later Public Law 590, 87th Congress, Second Session,
which authorized the Fryingpan-Arkansas project, was passed, with a sim-
ilar section pertaining to quality of water reports. This public law,
however, stipulated that January 3, 1963, would be the submission date
for the initial report and that the reports should be submitted every
two years thereafter.

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