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Summary of Major Findings 5 N 0') 00 ~ must be sent directly to an ocean outfall via a brine line. Thus far, capital costs for the brine line from the upper reaches of Riverside County are $50 million. Another $30 milliou in capital investment is being planned. Current yearly O&M costs for the brine line are $6.1 million, and these costs will rise to $10.8 million before 2010. The second regulation requires that the water injected into the coastal sea water intrusion barrier of Orange County have a salinity level no greater than 540 mgIL and meet drinking water standards. As a resnlt, the entire cost of Water Factory 21 (an advanced waste treatment facility including desalinization) is at- tributed to saliuity control. Thus tbe expended capital cost of $16.2 million (with an average $50,000 yearly capital expenditure) and the an- nual O&M costs of about $2.9 million can be considered as salinity damages. Increasing salinity remains an issue in the Santa Ana watershed. Desalting plants are being planned or projected for fnture construc- tion in three areas - with a potential capital cost of as much as $58 million and annual O&M costs up to $21 million. Two of these plants will be necessary for water supply purposes, one may be nccessary to successfully implement planned water reuse programs. Finally, the Regional Water Quality Control Board has the authority and willingness to order the purchase of alterna- tive water supplies for blending purposes. Such purchase, presumably from the California State Water Project, could cost up to $111111illion per year by 2010. From these data, an annual estimate of policy-related damages has been developed: $7,950,000 for annual capital costs and $24,600,000 for annual O&M costs, or a total of $32,550,000 annually. Damages to Industry The area of industrial damages from saline water is another in which insufficient data exist. However six studies list water quality criteria for diffcrent types of industrial processes. These criteria range from -0- TDS for high pressure boilers to 35,000 TDS for once-through cooling. By using data from Coullty Busilless Pal/ems for .. t he major counties in the study area combined with the projected TDS levels in the Colorado River and the current average TDS levels in metropolitan areas, it is possible to estimate salinity damages for two groups of industries - food processing and paper mills. The Cellsus of Water Use ill Mallufacturillg [1982] provides water use data for these two industrial groups in California and the Lower Colorado River Basin, Thus the industry, its location, and its average annual water use for processing and production can be estimated. The water quality criteria for such industries ranges from 500 to 850 mgIL TDS for food processing to 80 to 1080 mgIL TDS for paper mills. By subtracting the baseline (any damage that might occur without Colorado River water) from the current damage level, the amount of damage attributable to the Colorado River can be determined. The assigned levels at which damage can occur, derived from the litera- ture, and the calculated capital investment and O&M for desalinization provide the basis for 1986 damages that occur beginning at 500 mgIL TDS. Thus the annual damages range from $6.1 to $15.8 million, as calculated using alternate baseline levels of salinity (500 mgIL and 334 mgIL) and the 1976-85 average salinity level of the Colorado River. Summary of Salinity Damages Previous studies, relying on even more limited data than the present study, have reported total salinity damages by category (i.e., agricultural, municipal) in terms of specific an- nual values or in terms of dollars of damage per mgIL of TDS. Salinity damage estimates are based od material too complex and data too in- suflicientto warrant selection of a single number called "economic damage of salinity." Instead, damages should be shown as a range of valnes that more truly reveal the uncertainty or variability resulting from the data limitations. This is the recommended format for using this research and computer model. The total damages from Colorado River salinity range from $310.8 million to $831.1 mil- lion annually based on the 1976-85 average level of river salinity and the two selected baseline values. Figure 1 shows the annual damages based on the lO-year average salinity using the 500 mgIL base. Figure 2 shows the annual )'-'