WSP04002

• File Number: 8270.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Water Quality/Salinity -- Misc Water Quality
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1974
• Author: USDOI
• Title: Colorado River Water Quality Improvement Program - Status Report
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

maintenance of suitable salinity levels in the river
system. This is provided for in three public laws:

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1. Section 15 of the authorizing legislation for the
Colorado River Storage Project and Participating
Projects states "The Secretary of the Interior is
directed to continue studies and make reports to the
Congress and to the States of the Colorado River
Basin on the quality of water of the Colorado
River." (P.L 84-485.)

2, Section 15 of the authorizing legislation of the
San Juan-Chama Project and the Navajo Indian
I rrigation Project states "The Secretary of the
Interior is directed to continue his studies of the
quality of the water of the Colorado River system,
to appraise its suitability for municipal, domestic,
and industrial use, and for irrigation in various areas
of the United States in which it is proposed to be
u sed, to estimate the effect of additional
developments involving its storage and use (whether
heretofore authorized or contemplated for
authorization) on the remaining water available for
use in the United States, to study all possible means
of improving the quality of such water and of
alleviating the ill effects of water of poor quality,
and to report the results of his studies and estimates
to the 87th Congress and every 2 years thereafter."
(P.L. 87-483.)

3. Authorizing legislation for the
F ryingpan-Arkansas Project contains similar
language pertaining to water quality reports and
stipulated that the first report should be provided
by January 3, 1963, to be followed by submission
of reports every 2 years thereafter, (P.L 87-590.)

These acts provide authority to the Department of the
Interior for basinwide planning of a salinity control
program. Implementation of salinity control projects
will requ i re congressional authorizations. The
responsibility to plan and implement the control
program has been entrusted to the Bureau of
Reclamation, with the function to be coordinated with
other agencies of the Department such as the Office of
Saline Water, Office of Water Resources Research,
Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management,
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and
Wildlife, Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, and Bureau of
Mines. As planning progresses, each of these agencies
can be expected to contribute to the comprehensive
program for salinity control.

SALINITY INVESTIGATIONS

A salinity control program should be regarded as one
facet of a comprehensive plan for management of the
total water resources of the Colorado River Basin.
Basin water management is the best way to plan and
control the interrelated structures and the
non structural measures to optimize the use and
development of the water resources for the good of the
people. Under such management, the effects of salinity
would be controlled at levels suitable for the many uses
to which the water is placed. A program to accomplish
this objective would entail evaluation and selection of
the salinity control measures that best fit within the
basin water management concept.

Potential control measures include control at the
source, control at diversion points, altering time
pattern of water and salin ity discharge, and dilution by
augmentation of flow. A 10-year investigation entitled
"Colorado River Water Quality Improvement Program"
was initiated in 1971 with the specific objective of
identifying measures that would maintain salinity
concentrations at or below levels presently found in
the lower main stem.

The investigation schedule is shown on Figure 2. The
investigations are integrated with other programs
involving weather modification, geothermal resources,
desalting, and the Western U.S. Water Plan. Concurrent
feasibility investigations are underway on various
irrigation, point, and diffuse sources. The feasibility of
collecting saline return flows and converting them to
beneficial consumptive use within the basin is also
being studied. Related basinwide studies are scheduled
to overview relationships between individual control
units, assess implications of new technology, and
provide guidance to the selection of implementation
measures. Cost-sharing and repayment formulas are
under study.

The measures currently available for controlling
salinity may be categorized as follows:

1. Point source control involves salt removal from a
localized area contributing an inordinately high salt
load to the system,

These sources are generally springs, wells, geysers, or
mine drainages. Several techniques are available for
control of these sources including desalting,

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