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<br />REINHOLD W. THIEME <br /> <br />Thus, the adverse effects of salinity involve municipal, industrial, and irrigation water uses. <br />Among these three, irrigated agriculture is by far the most important in terms of the amount of warer <br />used. <br /> <br />Technical possibilities for salinity control may be divided into two categories: water-phase and <br />salt'phase control measures, <br /> <br />The former comprises possibilities for improving water quality by augmenting the water supply. <br />The latter embraces prospects for improving the water quality by reducing salinity entering the system, <br /> <br />Potential means of increasing the basin's water supply include the following, namely: water con, <br />servation measures; regulation or modification of activities with high consumptive use;,weather modifi, <br />cation to increase water supply; and importation of good quality water. <br /> <br />Technical possibilities for reducing the salt load in the basin include the following: control of <br />natural, municipal, and industrial sources and measures for reducing salt pickup from irrigated lands. <br /> <br />Although many technical possibilities for salinity control have been recognized, to date only <br />limited research, demonstration scudies and tecltnical investigations have been initiated to evaluate <br />their effectiveness or feasibility, <br /> <br />There are many critical problems and gaps in technical knowledge that need to be resolved in <br />order to determine the extent to which the basin's salinity problem can be minimized or controlled. <br /> <br />For many years, primary attention has been devoted to allocating and developing the basin's <br />available water supply, Water quality has received relatively little consideration. <br /> <br />In view of the Colorado River Basin's shrinking w~ter supply and the increasing magnitude of the <br />mineral quality problem, there is an urgent need for implementing at the earliest date, a comprehen, <br />sive, basin,wide water quality management program with special emphasis on salinity, <br /> <br />The full range of alternatives for managing water quality of the entire Colorado River System <br />should be given full consideration in this program. <br /> <br />Cooperation among user states must be developed if any solution is to be found to the problems <br />along the river, <br /> <br />One way in which this could be done would be to develop joint, cooperative research, develop' <br />ment and demonstration studies to gain better knowledge of the mechanisms of soil,salt dissolution <br />and other fundamental aspects of the basin's salinity problem. <br /> <br />Also better techniques need to be developed for determining and predicting the character and <br />amount of salinity resulting from irrigated agriculture al)d diffused natural resources. <br /> <br />And, again it, should be possible to develop an;d/or demonstrate new and improved salinity <br />control methods, The latter two objectives should etnphasize the provision of new and improved <br />technology for use in the reconnaissance-feasibility studies and for ultimate application in the im, <br />plementation of a salinity control plan to be developed by such a program. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br /> <br />Significant deterioration in water quality is caused by land drainage. Although rainfall is <br /> <br />,18, <br />