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"~ "" W tv - The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact of 1948 further apportioned Colorado River water, allocating to Arizona 50,000 acre-feet annually with the remaining water allocated to Upper Basin States as follows: Colorado, 51.75 percent; New Mexico, 11.25 percent; Utah, 23 percent; and wyoming. 14 percent. The compact permitted the authorization of Federal projects above Lee Ferry. States of the Lower Basin, however, did not agree to a compact for the apportionment of waters in the Lower Colorado River Basin; accordingly, a Supreme Court decree (Arizona V5. California et al.) in 1964 allocated use of the mainstream of the river below Lee Ferry among California. Nevada, and Arizona and of the Gila River between the States of Arizona and New Mexico. The decree also permitted Federal water projects and the development of Indian tribal lands to proceed. 2. Water Quality Although a number of water quality related legislative actions have been taken on the State and Federal levels, four Federal acts are of special significance to the Colorado River Basin--the Water Quality Act of 1965 and related amendments, the Federal Water pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (Public Law 92-500), the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act of 1974 as ammended, and the Clean Water Act of 1977 as ammended. Also central to water quality issues are agreements with Mexico on Colorado River system waters entering that country. The first of these, the Water Quality Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-234), amended the Federal Water pollution Control Act and established a Federal water pollutivn Control Administration (now EPAl. Among other provisions. it required states to adopt water quality criteria for interstate waters inside their boundaries. The seven Basin States initially developed water quality standards which did not include numeric salinity criteria for the Colorado River, primarily because of technical constraints. In 1972, the States agreed to a policy which called for the maintenance of salinity concentrations in the Lower Colorado River system at or below existing levels, while the upper Basin States continued to develop their compact-apportioned waters. The States suggested that Reclamation should have primary responsibility for investigating, planning, and implementing the proposed Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program. The enactment of the Federal Water pollution Control Act Amendment of 1972 affected salinity control in that the legislation was interpreted by EPA to require numerical standards for salinity in the Colorado River. In response, the Basin States founded the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum (Forum) to develop numeric salinity criteria and a basinwide plan of implementation for salinity control. The Basin States held public meetings on the proposed standards as required by the enacting legislation. The Forum recommended that the individual Basin States adopt the report, Water Quality Standards for Salinit Includin Numeric Criteria and plan of I lementation or Sa lnlt Contro, Co ora 0 Rlver S stem. e propos water qua lty stan ar ca or malntenance 0 ow-welghted average total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations of 723 milligrams per liter (mg/L) below Hoover Dam, 747 mg/L below Parker Dam, and 879 mg/L below Imperial Dam. Included in the plan of implementation were four salinity control units and possibly additional units, the application of effluent limitations, the use of saline water whenever practicable, and future studies. The standards are to be reviewed at 3-year intervals. All of the Basin States adopted the 1975 Forum recommended standards. 1-3