WSP04572

• File Number: 8271.300
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - General Information and Publications-Reports
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1981
• Author: R Evans W Walker
• Title: Optimizing Salinity Control Strategies for the Upper Colorado River Basin -- Part 1 of 2 - Title page - 186 -- Abstract - Bibliography
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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in the UCRB (Gardner and stewart, 1978). About 99 percent
of the irrigated land is served entirely by surface water
supplies. Figure 8 indicates the extent of irrigation
development in the basin.
Energy Development
USDI (1974) states that, although salinity is presently
the most serious water quality problem in the Upper Colorado
River Basin, energy development also presents some poten-
tially serious problems. Additional municipal and industrial
wastes, sediment, heavy metals, toxic materials, and unde-
sirable bacteria, temperature and dissolved oxygen content
levels in the streams and rivers pose future concerns for
the basin. without strict monitoring and enforcement of
existing water quality laws, localized problems, in addition
to salinity, such as sediment production, can be expected to
occur on the minor tributaries.
Because of the present energy shortage, the slow
development of solar power, and the long delays in nuclear
power plant construction, the use of the large coal (Fig. 9)
and oil shale (Fig. 10) deposits in the Upper Colorado River
Basin appear critical to the nation's energy needs. Other
significant energy resources are uranium (Fig. 11) and tar
sands deposits (Fig. 12).
Corsentino (1976) presented a listing of known planned
and proposed energy developments in the western United
States (Table 2), including 125 areas located in the Colorado
River Basin. There have been other projects proposed and