WSP03032

• 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
• Author: Utah State Univ
• Title: Colorado Regional Assessment Study - Phase One Report for the National Commission on Water Quality - Part 1 of 2 -- Title Page - end Chapter V
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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are irrigated by Colorado River water carried by the All-American

Canal. In 1949:, a branch of the All-American Canal delivered water to the

Coachella Valley of California, where now about 52,000 acres are irrigated

by water from the Colorado. The Lower Basin also exports, by means of

the Colorado River Aqueduct, sufficient water to provide 75 percent of the

water needs of the population in southern California.

The mineral, energy and agdcultur"al resource development of the

Basin are all dependent on the availability of water of sufficient quantity

and quality. In recent years demands for coal, abundant in the Upper

Basin, for the generation of thermoelectric power, has dramatically increased.

These demands have led to the development of strip mining techniques and

construction of mine-mouth electric generating plants. Coal reserves in

the region are estimated at l39 billion tons.

Uranium mineral deposits in the Upper Basin region are the largest

known in the world, World War II created an unprecendented demand

for fissionable material to produce atomic energy. The government was

the principle customer during this period. Post-war development was

slow until about 1965, when a new surge was created by the needs of the

increasing numbers of publically-owned atomic-powered electric generating

plants.

The leading mineral commodity produced in the Basin in recent times

is petroleum including crude oil and natural gas. Proven reserves of

producing oil and gas fields in the Upper Basin are estimated at 845 million

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