WSP02356

• File Number: 8273.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control - Federal Agencies - Bureau of Reclamation
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 10/1/1987
• Author: DOI BOR
• Title: Salinity Update - October 1987 - A Quarterly Report on the Colorado River Water Improvement Program
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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(Council - cont from p. 1)
The Council is composed of rep-
resentatives from the seven states
of California, Arizona, Nevada,
Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and New
Mexico. Reports will be delivered
by three Federal agencies - the
Department of the Interior, the
Department of Agriculture, and the
Environmental Protection Agency-
working to control salinity in the
river.
The Council was established by
the Colorado River Basin Salinity
Control Act of 1974 to serve as
liaison among the Federal agencies
and the basin states. The intent of
the act is to maintain salinity levels
at or below the 1972 level while the
basin states continue to develop
their compact-apportioned water
supplies.

(Grand Valley - cont from p.1)
These new landowners are find-
ing that the CRSC (Colorado
River Salinity Control) Program,
with its attractive cost-share
provisions, fits their irrigation im-
provement needs very nicely.
Fueled in part by this new seg-
ment of the population, 42 applica-
tions for CRSC contracts are cur-
rently on hand, representing close
to $800,000 in salinity control work.
Another major change in the
Grand Valley is the keen interest
by several home-owners' associa-
tions. The CRSC Program con-
tains provisions to provide techni-
cal and cost-share assistance to
these groups to improve delivery
systems from the main canal to
the point of water use. These
groups and home-owner associa-
tions are potentially a greater
source of salt loading to the
Colorado River than agricultural
water users. SCS is currently plan-
ning three of these projects, and

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many others have expressed an
interest.
With the Bureau of Reclamation
and the State of Colorado joining
forces to organize private laterals,
many water users are becoming
more interested and involved in
the salinity planning effort. This
has also led to an increased inter-
est on the part of water-users to
improve their onfarm and delivery
systems.
Water share-holders and canal
companies alike are weighing their
options and moving toward or-
ganizing to participate in the
salinity program. Two local com-
panies have even advertised for a
Salinity Program Coordinator to
work with share-holders.
It appears that the increased
awareness of the many local
benefits of the salinity control
program will result in higher par-
ticipation levels in the onfarm
program. This is in contrast to the
downward trend experienced
during the last few years.
By Emery C. Johnson
SCS District Conservationist
Grand Junction, Colorado

Saline water used for
microalgae production

By 1989, an experimental plant
run by Microbial Products, Inc.,
Fairfield, California, at the city of
Roswell's (New Mexico) test
facility will be producing gasoline
and diesel fuels from microalgal
ponds. The project has received
a $225,000 contract from the Solar
Energy Research Institute, Golden,
Colorado, and is co-funded by the
New Mexico Research and
Development Institute.
The facility will grow and
produce microalgae with high oil

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content that can be converted to
motor vehicle fuels. The micro-
algal ponds have the potential to
produce 5-7 barrels of fuel per
acre per week. The facility's loca-
tion makes use of a unique exist-
ing desalination facility, ample
saline ground water and a long
growing season.
Microalgae are the most primi-
tive, and the most simply organ-
ized, members of the plant
kingdom, SERI explains. The vast
majority exist as single cells in a
water habitat. Algae can efficient-
ly convert solar energy, the
majority of which can be con-
verted to biomass. SERI notes
that some of the microalgae can
have up to 70 percent of their
body content as lipid oils which
can be converted into gasoline
and diesel.

Evaluating microalgae grown in
desert Southwest
The microalgae outdoor test
facility will enable SERI and the
Department of Energy to begin
evaluating production of high-oil-
yielding microalgae grown in
saline water in the desert South-
west.
The program emphasizes the
development of microalgae sys-
tems in this area because it offers
flat land, high incident solar radia-
tion, few competing land uses,
and large reservoirs of saline
water.
By locating the mass culture
facility in this region, land costs
are held down, while the use of
saline water, unsuitable for agricul-
tural, domestic or industrial uses,
will minimize competition with
other uses for the limited supplies
of fresh water in the Southwest.
SERI says tentative plans in-
clude six small ponds for outdoor
screening of microalgae, an in-
oculum pond, two mid-size ponds