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<br />Appendix I <br />The Federal Salinity Control Program <br /> <br /> <br />w <br />c.n <br />CD <br />1'\) <br /> <br />The Grand Valley project, scheduled for completion in 1998 at an <br />estimated cost of $159 million, entails reducing seepage by lining about 45 <br />miles of existing earthen irrigation canals and by replacing with pipe about <br />338 miles of existing earthen laterals, or ditches, which convey water from <br />the canals to plots of land. The McElmo Creek project,7 scheduled for <br />completion in 1997 at a cost of about $39 million, entails lining 34 miles of <br />existing irrigation canals, installing 7 miles of laterals, and combining <br />existing canals into a new lined canal. The Lower Gunnison Basin project, <br />scheduled for completion at a cost of about $78 million, includes two <br />separate projects that entail reducing seepage by replacing an unlined <br />canal with a pipe to make water available for livestock during the winter <br />and by combining some laterals and replacing others with pipe. <br /> <br />The San Juan-Hammond project, with an estimated construction cost of <br />about $12 million, is planned to entail lining about 20 miles of canal and 7 <br />miles of laterals. The Uintah Basin project, estimated to cost about <br />$29 million, is planned to involve lining over 55 miles of canals and <br />laterals. The Price-San Rafael project, estimated to cost about $78 rnillion, <br />is planned to entail installing 97 miles of pipe for irrigation water. <br /> <br />Bureau of Land <br />Management <br /> <br />BLM administers 48 million acres in the Colorado River Basin above <br />Imperial Dam, or about 36 percent of the basin's total area. Of this land, <br />about 8 million acres contain saline soils. Most of the salt contributed to <br />the river from BLM-managed lands is from "nonpoint" sources such as <br />surface runoff, erosion, and the flow of groundwater. Point sources on BLM <br />lands include saline springs, mining spoil piles, and some oil and gas <br />production sites. According to program officials, the precise amount of <br />salt contributed from BLM-managed lands is extremely difficult to <br />determine because of variances in the movement of salt, sediment, and <br />groundwater and because of the proximity oflands not under BLM'S <br />control. <br /> <br />BLM'S primary focus for reducing the salt contributed to the river from <br />lands it administers is to control erosion and to stop specific point sources <br />(e.g., by plugging abandoned oil and gas wells that are such sources). BLM'S <br />efforts to control erosion include building "check-dams" to prevent soils <br />from washing away during heavy rains and improving vegetation to better <br />hold the ground in place. BLM also improves ground cover by controlling or <br />limiting grazing. <br /> <br />7The McElmo Creek project is part of BOR's Dolores project, a water project located in southwestern <br />Colorado. <br /> <br />Page 21 <br /> <br />GAOIRCED-95-58 Salinity Control Projects in the Colorado River Basin <br /> <br />.-. -~ -< <br />