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<br />. A <br /> <br />Information <br /> <br />Public Affairs Center <br /> <br />u.s. Department <br />of the Interior <br />Water and Power <br />Resources <br />Service <br /> <br />N <br />o <br />CD <br />CD <br /> <br />For Immediate Release <br /> <br />Mi l1on: <br />Larkins: <br /> <br />(303) 234-6260 <br />(202) 343-4662 <br /> <br />Colorado River Salinity <br /> <br />Issue date: March 10, 1981 <br /> <br />The Department of the Interior's Water and Power Resources Service has <br />released a 19-page report documenting salinity damages to Lower Colorado River <br /> <br />water users amounting to $96 million a year caused from increasing pollution <br /> <br />by mineral salts in the Colorado River. <br /> <br />Acting Commissioner of Water and Power Resources Cliff Barrett said the <br />ana lys i s wi 11 be used "to provide a more comprehensi ve worki ng document" for <br />assessing economic impacts in the planning of salinity control and water <br />development projects for the Colorado River. <br /> <br />Mike Clinton, Chief of Water and Power's Colorado River Water Quality Office <br />in Denver, said unless controls are implemented, the damages amount could rise <br />to $237 million by the year 2000. Pointing out that the figures in the report <br />are conservative, Clinton said: "Although the report documents physical impacts <br />and costs in the agricultural and municipal water use sectors, it is recognized <br />as incomplete since public health and some industrial impacts were not assessed." <br /> <br />The report, titled "Colorado River Sal inity - Economic Impacts on <br />Agricultural, Municipal and Industrial Users," was compiled by researchers and <br />economists from Water and Power and a consortium of Western universities. <br /> <br />The report documents damages from Colorado River waters which are increasing <br />in "salinity" - a term referring to concentration levels of dissolved substances <br />such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, chloride, bicarbonate and other dissolved <br />solids. <br /> <br />The Colorado River - which rises in the snowcapped Rocky Mountains and <br />collects water from parts of seven states - picks up and carries with its waters <br />more than 10 million tons of dissolved minerals a year as it makes its way some <br />1,400 miles southwest to Mexico before emptying into the Gulf of California. <br /> <br />(more) <br /> <br />Code 140 NR1781 <br />p.o. Box 25007 <br />Denver Federal Center <br />Denver, Co. 80225 <br /> <br />~" c.".' ~.,",,-,jLi,Mi <br /> <br />, , <br />