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<br />SUMMARY <br /> <br />INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />The Price-San Rafael Rivers Unit (Unit) of the Colorado River Water Quality <br />Improvement Program and Colorado River Salinity Control would reduce salt <br />contribution to the Colorado River by about 161,000 tons annually, through a <br />system of onfarm and off-farm irrigation improvements jointly implemented by <br />the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Bureau of Reclamation <br />(Reclamation). The combined cost effectiveness of the program would be <br />$39 per ton of salt removed. <br /> <br />The Unit would treat some 16,350 acres offarmland in central Utah with <br />gravity-pressure sprinkler irrigation; about 9,650 acres with pump pressure <br />sprinkler systems; and 10,050 acres with improved surface irrigation systems. <br />The acreages would also receive improved irrigation water management. In <br />addition, water would be eliminated from all open conveyance systems in the <br />project area during the winter (nonirrigation) season. <br /> <br />Unit studies included an analysis of existing irrigation practices and salt- <br />loading mechanisms in the project area, development of alternatives for <br />reducing the salt contribution, identification of potential beneficial uses of <br />saline water, evaluation of alternatives, and selection of a preferred plan. <br />Reclamation's off-farm activities focused on the main canal irrigation system, <br />while the Soil Conservation Service's (SCS) activities were directed toward <br />onfarm irrigation features; the onfarm and off-farm features are, however, <br />interdependent. <br /> <br />PROBLEMS AND NEEDS <br /> <br />At its headwaters in the mountains of north-central Colorado, the Colorado <br />River has a salinity concentration of 50 milligrams per liter (mg/L). The <br />concentration progressively increases downstream as a result of water <br />diversions and salt contributions from a variety of sources. Annual salinity <br />concentrations at Imperial Dam are estimated to increase from the 1987 <br />measured average level of 850 mg/L to an average of 970 mg/L by 2010 unless <br />additional control measures are implemented to prevent the salinity increase. <br /> <br />Although a number of water quality-related legislative actions have been taken <br />on the State and Federal levels, four Federal acts are of special significance to <br />the Colorado River Basin-the Water Quality Act of 1965 and related <br />amendments, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 <br />(Public Law 92-500), the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act of 1974 as <br />amended, and the Clean Water Act of 1977 as amended. <br /> <br />The Water Quality Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-234) amended the Federal Water <br />Pollution Control Act and established a Federal Water Pollution Control <br />Administration (now the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA)). Among O!J C 4.;2 ;) <br />other provisions, it required States to adopt water quality criteria for interstate <br />