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<br />., <br />........z.'('t.., <br />..:-1"0' <br />',Ji.;' <br />." <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />~.."" <br /> <br />o <br />c.:J <br />en <br />N <br /> <br />'. ;~'.'Desalting. of Colorado River <br />. :~._caned too\~!it~tly, unworkable <br /> <br />~ Scripps Howard ~~( 0: ~ The saIinity~ntrol program was <br />- WASHINGTON - A 15-year authorized by Congress in 1974 after <br />project to reduce salinity in the strong protests from Mexico that its <br />Colorado River's basin should be crops were being damaged because <br />re-evaluated because of high construe- U.S. development along the river had <br />tion costs at a desalination plant in doubled its natural salinity by the <br />, Yuma and a lack of cooperation from time it reached Mexico. <br />upper-basin states, an Interior Depart- The program called for construe- <br />~ ment report says. tion of the Yuma desalination plant, <br />A report by the department's which originally was projected to cost <br />inspector general predicts that the $155 million. The plant now is expee- <br />COSt of the program, which already ted to cost $485 miilion and to be <br />exceeds $450 million, wiil rise sub- operating by 1992. <br />: : ; stantially and recommends that Con- But the plant may not be able to <br />: - . gress and the Bush administration reduce salinity to the level promised <br />:; .' rethink the entire program. under a U.S.-Mexican agreement, the <br />.' - ., Colorado officials contended the report said. <br />. report misrepresents the situation in The report, released last week, <br />the upper-basin states. contends that upper-basin states and <br />The basin extends '1,400 miles private canal operators "do not <br />through seven states and provides actively support the program because <br />water for 18 miilion people and they do not directly benefit from it." <br />I. 7 miilion acres of farmland. The But Bill McDonald, director of the <br />upper-basin states are Colorado, Wyo- Colorado Water Conservation Board, <br />ming, Utah and New Mexico, and the said only one salinity-control project <br />lower-basin states are Arizona, Ne- has been completed in the upper basin <br />vada and California. because "Congress hasn't honored the <br />Colorado River water is allocated states' request to appropriate the <br />among the states by the Colorado amount of money it would take to get <br />River Compact them done. n <br /> <br />... <br /> <br />--- . <br /> <br />.......~ <br /> <br />~::. <br /> <br />~ <br />