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<br />,~1' <br /> <br />An Overview of the Basin's Resource-Management Problems <br /> <br />..."' <br />'.." <br /> <br />.: ~ <br /> <br />In some cases, restoring the ability of a resource to meet all competing <br />demands is physically impossible; in others, restoration may be possible, but <br />only at considerable economic and political cost. <br /> <br />::-. <br /> <br />This is particularly true with impacts on water quality. Water quality is not <br />an absolute concept but a relative one that evaluates the usefulness of water <br />based on its temperature, physical, and biological characteristics. In places <br />where groundwater has been used to accept and dilute the effluent from <br />septic systems or spills of toxic chemicals, for example, it can continue to be <br />useful in this role, but it no longer is acceptable as drinking water. Either <br />the water must be abandoned as a potential source of drinking water or costs <br />must be incurred to render it useful for human consumptive use. <br /> <br />~] <br /> <br />The special requirements of the Basin's tribes offer another example of <br />where corrective action also is needed to render resources suitable for <br />particular uses. The Isleta Pueblo was the first tribe to have water-quality <br />standards certified by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean <br />Water Act. These standards relate to the tribe's ceremonial use of river <br />water and require the water to be suitable for personal contact and ingestion. <br />Adoption of these standards, together with rapid population growth within <br />its own city limits, has induced Albuquerque to promise to expand its <br />sewage-treatment facilities and to reduce some pollutants and eliminate <br />others. <br /> <br />.~< <br /> <br />Past studies of surface-water pollution in the Rio Grande have found uses <br />impaired in portions ofthe Middle Rio Grande Area by nutrients, trace <br />metals, radionuclides, biocides, volatile organic compounds, chlorine, <br />pathogens, siltation, reduced riparian vegetation, and streambank <br />destabilization (Fox et al. 1995). Uses also can be impaired in Texas, where <br />there typically are 8-900 parts per million (ppm) of dissolved solids in the <br />river near EI Paso, and crop damage can occur when concentrations reach <br />1,000 ppm (U.S. Department of the Interior 1995b). <br /> <br />'.: <br /> <br />, <br />" <br />~ <br /> <br />The Basin's riparian resources have been heavily altered and degraded in <br />their ability to meet some demands. These resources are covered by the <br />conclusions of a recent report by the Bureau of Reclamation, which observes <br />that, "Extensive field observations in the late 1980s suggested that riparian <br />areas in most of the West were in the worst condition in history... [and these] <br />areas will not recover on a large scale without changes in policy, regulations, <br />and management ..." (U.S. Department of the Interior 1995b). The report <br /> <br />(-S2973 <br />, <br /> <br />93 <br />