WSP06183

• File Number: 8210.140
• Description: Colorado River Basin Organizations and Entities - Colorado River Basin States Forum
• State: CO
• Basin: Western Slope
• Date: 2/22/1971
• Author: Myron B Holburt
• Title: Salinity Problems on the Colorado River
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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several small areas in Utah and Wyomine. Control measures applied to

these projects would reduce the salt contribution from 600,000 acres

of irrigated land by about 1,600,000 tons annually. The average an-

nual cost of salt control measures for the individual areas varies

from a low of $5 per ton in the Grand Valley of Colorado to a high
of $12 per ton in one small area.

Local irrigators in all of these areas would also benefit by
the salinity control meaEures. There would be increased yields due
to lowering of the water table, fertilizer costs would be reQuced,
and operation anc maintenance costs of canal delivery systems would
be reduced.

An interesting project to control a natural point source of salt

is proposed for the Paradox Valley, Colorado, which is crossec by

the Dolores ~iver and a few of its tributaries. The Dolores River

picks up a large mineral load from underlying, highly soluble ground

formations. The project would include a dam and regulatory reservoir

above the valley, and an impervious channel through the valley to

minimize the interchange between stream flow and ground water, there-

by reducing the salt load by 160,~00 tans annually. This project

would have an average annual cost of $700,000, or a unit cost of

about $lf per ton of s<:.lt kept out of the river.

Three projects ~uuld control mineral springs: one at Glenwood

Springs, Colorado; one at La Verkin Springs, Utah; and the third at

Blue Springs, Arizona. About 70 percent of the flow of Glenwood

and Dotsero Springs, near the town of Glenwood Springs, could be

controlled and 370,000 tons of salt annually removed by ffipans of ~

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