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Show Water Quality As water use in the Upper Colorado Region increases, less water and poorer quality water enter the Lower Colorado Region. Specific salinity control programs are proposed for the Las Vegas and Yuma areas, for Blue Spring in the mouth of the Little Colorado River, and for LaVerkin Springs in southwestern Utah. These programs would be elements in a combined Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program recommended for implementa- tion in both the Upper and Lower Colorado Regions. While the elements in the Basinwide program located within the Lower Colorado Region would pro- vide only a limited degree of salinity improvement, implementation of the complete program would be highly significant, removing about 25 percent of the dissolved salts in the river at Lake Mead in the year 2000. Large-scale importation of high quality water also would be effective in reducing salinity of Colorado River water; however, the proposed impor- tation of water is intended to satisfy depletion requirements only and special legislation would be required to authorize importation of water primarily for quality control. The proposed water quality program includes several waste water treatment plants and reuse facilities at or near the places of use. Notable among these is a 150 million gallons per day nuclear desalting plant near Buckeye, Arizona, to treat irrigation return flow for reuse. A desalting plant is also considered essential to the treatment of effluents from the Las Vegas area. In addition, the land treatment and management program described In the following section will materially benefit the water quality of. the Region's surface water supply. Continued studies are proposed for the identification and solution to physical, engineering, legal, and institutional considerations neces- sary to the implementation of a sound water quality program for the Region and the entire Southwest. Land Treatment and Management Increased pressure on the land resources, inherent in the expanding needs and demands of the Region's population, will necessitate continua- tion of the early action land treatment and management program on ^3*3 million acres. In most cases, the same acre may require treatment more than once during the UO-year period because of development of improved methods, or because of the limited life of the measure or practice installed. 99 |