WSP01567

• File Number: 8273.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control - Federal Agencies - Bureau of Reclamation
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1985
• Author: DOI BOR
• Title: Salinity Update - January 1985 - A Quarterly Report on the Colorado River Water Improvement Program
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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landowners through a program
including:
1. Identification of irrigation and
watershed salt sources.
2. Developing plans to improve
irrigation water management,
laterals, erosion management, and
voluntary replacement of fish and
wildlife values foregone.
3. Providing technical and cost-
sharing assistance, except for
operation and maintenance
responsibilities including those for
replacing fish and wildlife values
foregone, through contracts or
agreements with individuals, canal
companies, etc., based on benefits
received and other appropriate
factors with a minimum 30 percent
cost-sharing unless the cost-sharing
is adjusted by the Secretary of
Agriculture in order to proceecl with
onfarm measures.
4. Providing technical assistance for
irrigation water management,
monitoring salt contributions to the
Colorado River, and research,
demonstration, and education
activities;
- Direct the Secretary of Agriculture to
report onfarm measures to be
implemented, indicate report
distribution, and prohibit expenditure of
funds until 60 days after submission of
the report;
- Allow the Secretary of Agriculture to
use existing agencies or authorize
existing agencies to use grants or
cooperative agreements with
conservation districts, universities, etc.,
to cany out the onfarm program and to
authorize funds to be appropriated
annually for the onfarm program;
- Direct the Secretary of Agriculture to
submit a report on the onfarm program
to the Congress by January 1, 1988, and
every five years thereafter;
- Provide for reimbursement by the
Upper and Lower Basin funds of 25
percent of the costs of construction,
operation, maintenance, and
replacement, including fish and wildlife
values foregone for the previously
authorized Department of the Interior
units without interest within 50 years or

less if the life of the facilities is of shorter
duration;
- Provide for reimbursement by the
Upper and Lower Basin funds of 30
percent of the costs of construction,
operation, maintenance, and
replacement of the Department of the
Interior units authorized by P.L. 98-569,
30 percent of the Department of
Agriculture onfarm cost share funding,
and 30 percent of the measures to
replace fish and wildlife values foregone
as follows:
1. The Upper Colorado River Basin
Fund's portion would be repaid with
interest within 50 years or less if the
life of the facilities is of shorter
duration.
2. The Lower Colorado River Basin
Development Fund's portion would
be repaid either without interest
during the year the costs are
incurred, or, if the fund is unable to
repay during the year the costs are
incurred, with interest as soon as
monies are available;
- Provide interest rate provisions
reflecting realistic costs of borrowed
monies to the Federal Government;
- Provide that operation and
maintenance costs be repaid without
interest by the Basin funds the year after
they are incurred and that any operation
and maintenance costs due to
irrigators, state fish and game agencies,
etc., under contracts with the Secretary
of the Interior, be repaid without interest
the year after they are incurred;
- Delete the provision for Congressional
Committee disapproval of expenditure
of funds;
- Provide that the Department of the
Interior funds appropriated for
construction, operation, maintenance,
and replacement may be used for any
or all of the authorized units.

Satellite Data Collection by
USGS

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has
recently installed a direct readout ground
station (DRGS) in Denver, Colorado. This
DRGS will receive hydrologic data from data

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collection platforms (DCP's) atstreamgaging
stations in the Westem United States. Data
received at the ground station are from
USGS-installed DCP's as well as from other
Federal and State agency-installed DCP's.
The information relayed to the ground
station is entered into the USGS PRIME
computer system where it is processed for
distribution to users. The preliminary
information then becomes readily available,
allowing users access to current information
for use in water management and river
regulation.
Data collection platforms currently in
operation have the capability of transmitting
a variety of hydrologic and meteorological
information, such as river-stage, salinity (as
expressed by specific conductance),
dissolved oxygen levels, and precipitation
amounts. The information can be presented
in either tabular or graphical form to aid users
involved in managing water-quality
conditions, forecasting floods, and
regulating reservoir releases.
The ground station maintained by the
USGS on the Denver Federal Center is
capable of receiving and processing data
from approximately 1,000 stations. Currently
the Denver ground station receives data from
about 160 DCP stations including 55 DCP's
in States from Iowa to Hawaii and 80 DCP's
which are being installed at streamflow
stations across Colorado by the Department
of Natural Resources, Office of the State
Engineer.
To provide current hydrologic information
to water-data users nationally, the USGS
maintains six additional ground station sites
across the United States. To provide
continuity in record, each site has been
paired with another location to serve as a
backup receive site should the primary site
become inoperative.

McElmo Creek Features Become
Part of the Dolores Project

With the passage of Public Law 98-569 on
October 30, 1984, the planning activities for
the McElmo Creek Unit of the Colorado River
Water Quality Improvement Program cease.
The salinity control features of the McElmO
Creek Unit will now be constructed under the
Dolores Project.