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<br />, <br />4,3.2 State Surface Water Quality Standards <br /> <br />waters of the San Juan basin in New Mexico has fully supported uses. Agriculture and resource extraction <br />activities are the most common sources of nonsupport, with metals and siltation as the most common <br />causes of nonsupport (New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission 1992). The only San Juan basin <br />lake whose uses are not fully supported is Navajo Reservoir (Table 8). <br /> <br />Colorado - Colorado has eight surface water use classifications, one of which is for wetlands <br />(Table 9) (Colorado Water Quality Control Conunission 1993a). All river and stream segments within <br />the San Juan basin are designated fisheries with the exception of single segments along the Animas River, <br />Cement Creek, and Mineral Creek. <br />Individual river basins in Colorado have their own surface water quality standards. The <br />standards for the San Juan basin and the Dolores River basin are grouped together (Table 10) (Colorado <br />Water Quality Control Commission 1993b). The significance of the Dolores River to the San Juan basin <br />is discussed in Section 4.10.3. Standards pertaining to the entire state for organics (Table 11), physical <br />and biological parameters (Table 12), inorganics (Table 13), and metals (Table 14) have also been <br />promulgated (Colorado Water Quality Control Conunission 1993a). All waters in the San Juan basin are <br />subject to the following temperature standard: temperature shall maintain a normal pattern of diurnal and <br />seasonal fluctuations with no abrupt changes and shall have no increase in temperature of magnitude, rate, <br />and duration deemed deleterious to resident aquatic life (Colorado Water Quality Control Commission <br />(1 993b ). 1n addition to the general standards set for the state and the San Juan basin, most segments <br />within the basin have also been assigned standards specific to their designated uses. The segments, their <br />classifications, and corresponding standards are listed by subbasin (Table 15) (Colorado Water Quality <br />Control Commission 1993b). <br />The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission (1993b) warns that although none of the <br />water quality standards are set below detectable limits, routine methodology may not achieve a low enough <br />detection limit for certain parameters. This warning l\pplies to several of the New Mexico and Utah <br />standards as well, particularly for the more toxic parameters such as mercury and many of the organics. <br />The classifications for upstream segments of streams generally are the same or higher than <br />downstream segments. In a few cases, tributaries have been assigned lower classifications than mainstems <br />where flow from the tributaries does not threaten the mainstem water and the lower classification is <br />appropriate (Colorado Water Quality Control Commission 1993b). <br />The three segments that have not been designated as fisheries are Segments 2, 6, and 7 of the <br />Animas River basin (Table 15). The justification for the Segment 2 classification is that: <br /> <br />Although there is some evidence of insect life ,at points in the segment, the evidence regarding <br />the presence of aquatic life is contradictory, and there is no evidence of fish life being present. <br />In the absence of sufficient data to support the classification of any portion of this segment for <br />aquatic life, the current status is being retained and no aquatic life use is assigned. <br /> <br />The justification for the Segment 6 classification is that: <br /> <br />Since Cement Creek and its tributaries are degraded by abandoned mine drainage and past <br />discharges, the Commission did not assign aquatic and agricultural classifications to the <br />segments as had been proposed. The segment does not currently have an aquatic life <br />classification, and thus the status quo is maintained. <br /> <br />32 <br />