OCR Text |
Show RESOLUTION by UPPER COLORADO RIVER COMMISSION Re: Water Quality Criteria for Colorado River System WHEREAS, the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration has proposed that quantitative criteria for total dissolved solids be set at various points in the Colorado River system based on an upper limit of 1000 mg/l at Imperial Dam; and WHEREAS, the concentration of dissolved solids at Imperial Dam in recent years has exceeded 1000 mg/l; and WHEREAS, the Colorado River Compact of 1922 allocated the beneficial consumptive use of 7.5 million acre feet of water annually to the Upper Colorado River Basin; and WHEREAS, the beneficial consumptive use of water in the Upper Colorado River Basin currently is less than 3.0 million acre feet annually; and WHEREAS, consumptive use of water for irrigation, municipal, industrial or other purposes inevitably causes an increase in the concentration of dissolved solids by consuming a part of the water diverted from the stream and leaving all of the salts diverted in the remainder; also an increase in concentration of dissolved solids results from the addition of some dissolved solids not reasonably and economically removeable; and WHEREAS, the information currently available is inadequate to project the concentration of dissolved solids at Imperial Dam taking into consideration the reasonable use of water in the Upper Basin under full development within the limits of the Colorado River Compact along with good water management practices including possible measures to control natural sources of saline water; and WHEREAS, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and subsequently the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration have had an investigation known as the Colorado River Basin Water Quality Control Project underway for seven years; and WHEREAS, the Bureau of Reclamation under Public Laws 84-485, 87-483 and 87-590 has underway an investigation designed to project the quality of the water of the Colorado River system under full development; and WHEREAS, representatives of the seven states of the Colorado 36 |