WSP07419

• File Number: 8270.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Water Quality/Salinity -- Misc Water Quality
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1973
• Author: USDOI
• Title: Quality of Water - Colorado River Basin - Progress Report No. 6 - January 1973
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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P.A.RT I. INTRODUCTION

A. Le~islative Rcquir~ents for Renort

This is the sixth proGres~ report on Quality of Weter in the Colo-
rado River Basin. The directive for preparing this and the five previ-
ous reports is contained in three separate public lavs. Section 15 of
the authorizing legislation for the Colorado River Storage Project and
participating projects, Public Law 485. 84th Congress. Second Session.
April 11, 1956. states, "The Secretary of the Interior is directed to
continue studies and make a report to the Congress and to the St~tes of
the Colorado River Basin on the quality of water of the Colorado River."

A progress report to comply with Public Law 84-485 '..tas in prepara.-
tion when the authorizing legislation for the San Juan-Ch~~a Project and
the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (P.L. 87-483) became effective on
JW1e 13, 1962. Section 15 of this act states, "The Secretary of the In-
terior is directed to continue his studies of the quality of ~~ter of
the Colorado River system, to appraise its suitability for municipal,
domestic, and industrial use and for irrigation in the various areas in
the United States in which it is used or proposed to be used, to esti-
mate the effect of additional developments involving its storage and
use ('Jhether heretofore authorized or contemplated for authorization)
on the remaining water available for use in the United States, to study
all possible means of improving the quality of such -..-ater and of allevi-
ating the ill effects of water of poor quality, and to report the results
of his studies and estimates to the Eighty-Seventh Congress and everf
2 years thereafter."

A few weeks later Public LaW' 590, 87th Congress. Second Session,
which authorized the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, ",~--5 passed with a sim.i~
lar section pertaining to quality of water reports. This public law,
however, stipulated that January 3, 1963, ~uld be the submission date
for the initial report and that the reports should be submitted every
2 years thereafter.

B. Previous Reports

A series of five reports starting with the 1963 edition have been
prepared prior to this report. Each succeeding report updated the pre-
vious report ~~d added changes which occurred within the 2-year inter-
val.

In addition to including 2 more years of record, the major changes
in this report hor::: the January 1971 report are as follo-.."S: (1) transfer-
ring that part of' the future estimated depletions that actually occlP"r~d
during the 2 years to present depletions; (2) deleting the records of

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