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<br />o <br />l\) <br />tv <br />CO <br /> <br />The Basin states, acting through the Forum, initially responded to this regulation by <br />developing and submitting to the EPA a report entitled Water Quality Standards for Salinity <br />Including Numeric Criteria and Plan of Implementation for Salinity Control- Colorado River System <br />dated June 1975. Since the states' initial adoption, the water quality standards have been reviewed <br />every three years (1978, 1981, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, and 1999) as required by Section <br />303(c)(I) ofthe Clean Water Act. <br /> <br />The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act was amended in 1984 by P.L. 98-569 to <br />authorize two additional units for construction by Reclamation and directed the Bureau of Land <br />Management (BLM) to implement a comprehensive program to minimize salt loading in the <br />Colorado River Basin. The amendments directed the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of <br />Agriculture to give preference to the salinity control units with the least cost per unit of salinity <br />reduction. The Act was also amended to establish a voluntary on-farm salinity control program to <br />be implemented by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and provided for voluntary <br />replacement of incidental fish and wildlife values foregone on account of the on-farm measures. <br />Many cost-effective salt-load reducing activities were accomplished in the decade following that <br />authorization. <br /> <br />Reclamation and the Forum in 1994 concluded that the existing Act, as amended, with its <br />unit-specific approach and authorization ceiling, was limiting salinity control opportunities. In 1995, <br />the Act was amended by P.L. 104-20 to authorize new procedures (Basinwide Salinity Control <br />Program) for Reclamation to follow in implementing salinity control. Reclamation's Basinwide <br />Salinity Control Program opens the program to competition through a public process and has greatly <br />reduced the cost of salinity control. In 2000, P.L.I 06-459 increased the authorization ceiling for the <br />Basinwide Salinity Control Program from $75 million to $175 million. <br /> <br />The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act (FAlRA) of 1996 (p.L. 104-127) <br />further amended USDA's role in salinity control by creating a new conservation program known as <br />the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) which combined four conservation programs, <br />including USDA's Colorado River Salinity Control Program. F AlRA provided authority for funding <br />the nationwide EQIP through the year 2002. USDA has created rules and regulations concerning <br />how EQIP funds are to be allocated. The Forum's experience has been that the enacted rules and <br />regulations for EQIP do not consider the significant benefits in downstream states, thus creating a <br />situation which disadvantages salinity control efforts when compared to other local initiatives. The <br />past authority for the states to cost-share from the Basin funds was retained in the new EQIP with <br />linkage to Reclamation's authority to distribute Basin funds for cost-sharing. <br /> <br />The Farm Security and Rurallnvestrnent Act (FSRIA) of2002 (P.L. 107-171) reauthorized <br />EQIP from 2002 through 2007 at significantly increased funding levels. The EQIP funds dedicated <br />to the Colorado River Salinity Control Program totaled more than $1 0 million, which is about double <br />the funds available in 2001, and could possibly rise to a high of$33 million in 2007, the final year <br />of FSRIA. Final rules have not been published and the full input ofFSRIA on salinity control have <br />not been analyzed. <br /> <br />1-3 <br /> <br />,:i" ',;\ <br />