WSP04876

• File Number: 8270.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Water Quality/Salinity -- Misc Water Quality
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1983
• Author: USDOI
• Title: Quality of Water - Colorado River Basin - Progress Report No. 11 - January 1983
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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PART I

tSTRODUCTION

exportation and obligations to Indian Tribf's.
Treaty of 1944 obligates the United States to
MAF of Colorado River water annually.

Further, the ~e)(ican
deliver to ~e:dco 1.5

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The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact of 1948 further appor-
tioned Colorado River water, allocating to Arizona 50,000 acre-feet
annually, with the remaining water allocated to Upper Basin States a5
follows: Colorado, 51.75 percent; New !1exicu, 11.25 percent; Utah, 23
percent; 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 app.:Jftionment of waters in tht> Lower
Colorado River Basin; accordingly, a Supreme Court decree (Arizona vs.
California et a1.) in 1964 allocat~d use of the main stream of the river
below Lee Ferry among California, Nevada, and Arizona, and of the Gila
River between the States uf Ar izona and ~ew ~exico. The decree also
permitted Federal water projects and the development of Indian tribal
lands to proceed.

2. Water Quality

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Although a number of water quality-related legislativl" actions
have been taken on the State and Federal levels, four Ff>deral acts ar.. of
special significance to thl:' Colorado River Basin: (1) The \.later Quality
Act of 1965 and related amendments, (2) the Federal Water Pollut i.on
Control Act Amendments of 1972 (Public Law 92-500), (3) the Colorado
River Basin Salinity Control Act of 1974, and (4) tho'> Clean Water Act of
1977. 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 Pollution Control Administration (now EPA). 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 beCduse of technical
constraints. In 1972, the states agreed to d policy which called for the
maintenance of salinity concentrations in the Lower Colorado River system
dt or below existing levels while the Upper Basin states continued to
develop their compact apport ioned waters. The states suggested that
the Bureau of Reclamation should have primary responsibility for investi-
gating, planning, and implementing the pr<Jposed Colorado River Basin
Salinity C.:lntrol Program with the assistance of the Federal Office of
Saline Water and EPA.

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Enactment of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments
of 1972 affected salinity control in that the leKislation was interpreted
by EPA to require numerical standards for salinity in the Colorado River.
In response, the basin states founded the Colorado River Basin Sal inity
Control Forum to develop numeric salinity crit",ria and a basinwide
plan of implementation for salinity control. The Basin States held
public meetings on thO' proposed standards as. required by the enactin~

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