WSP00913

• File Number: 8272.600.60
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - Basin Member State Info - Utah
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 3/7/1975
• Title: Colorado Regional Assessment Study - Phase One Report for the National Commission on Water Quality - Part 2 of 2 -- Chapter VI - end
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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entrepreneur will undertake the investment to improve quality since

he cannot collect the increased value of his investment from the beneficiaries. .

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o Thus, if quality-improving investment is to be undertaken, it must be
o
,.....

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done by a public body.

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This option of public investment in quality improvement may improve

the welfare positions of both upstream and downstream users, depending

on the distribution of the costs and benefits of the investment. It might

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take many forms - investment in off-farm desalination plants or other

mechnaical devices to remove salt, investment to increase water supplies

in the entire system or to alter seasonal deliveries that would minimize

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the damages of given salt loads, and controlling evapotranspiration by

phreatophytes. Obviously, investment in quality improvement can apply

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to all forms and sources of pollution, but may be about the only effective

alternative for reducing salinity from overland runoff and natural or

point sources.

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Off-farm investment to develop new water supplies, or in storage

to improve the timing of deliveries, or in reducing evapotranspiration

losses by phreatophytes, would shift the MED curve downward and to the

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right. Each level of water use by irrigators would inflict smaller damages

on downstream users. This implies also an increase in optimal water

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use upstream" and thus, both groups could be made better off. These

public investment alternatives should be evaluated by the economic criterion

that if they produce more social benefits than their resource opportunity

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