Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act
The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act of 1974 was among several environmental acts replaced by the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) under the Farm Bill of 1996. Title 1 of the 1974 Act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to build controls near Yuma, Arizona to meet salinity levels promised for water delivered to Mexico under the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944. Title 2 authorized salinity controls in Colorado, Utah and Nevada.
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Colorado Watershed
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The Colorado River watershed occupies 246,000 square miles in seven states of the American West. Fully 75 percent is public land or the reservation property of Native Americans. The Colorado rises in Rocky Mountain National Park, near Denver. At Canyonlands National Park in Utah, the Green River of Wyoming joins the Colorado. The Colorado flows 1,450 miles to its mouth in Mexico at the northern tip of the Gulf of California (Mar de Cortez). The watershed brings exotic (foreign) Upper Basin waters to irrigated farms in the Lower Basin deserts in Nevada, Arizona and California.
Salinity
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At Glenwood Springs, Colorado, the river contains 250 parts per million (ppm) total dissolved solids (TDS, salinity). At Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam, near Las Vegas, salinity is 700 ppm. About half that increase is natural, and half is "flow return" from agricultural use. Irrigated farmland must be drained or soil becomes waterlogged. In 1962, when salinity control projects began, the river entered Morales Diversion Dam, a Mexico irrigation project, bearing 1500 ppm salinity. The US Environmental Protection Agency recommends 500 ppm as the upper limit for safe drinking water. At 1500 ppm, water tastes salty.
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Title 1
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Title 1 of Colorado River Basin Control Act described improvements downstream from Imperial Dam, near Yuma, Arizona. Title 1 funded a desalting plant for 129 million gallons of irrigation water returned daily from the Wellton-Mohawk irrigation project. The desalting goal was 90 percent of TDS. Title 1 funded extension and improvement of an existing by-pass drain for the desalting reject stream. Title 1 authorized purchase of irrigated farmland to reduce potential return flows into the desalting plant, and made funds available to Mexico to build their share of the project.
Title 2
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Title 2 directed the Secretary of the Interior to manage waters upstream from Imperial Dam by collecting and disposing of saline ground water in Paradox Valley in Colorado, Las Vegas Wash in Nevada, and the Crystal Geyser Unit in Utah. The act funded control seepage of irrigation water from farmland in Grand Valley, Colorado, including combining and lining existing canals and eliminating excess irrigation applications. Title 2 authorized adjustments for hydroelectric consumer rates.
EQIP
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Colorado River Basin salinity control projects of the US Department of Agriculture control more than 300,000 tons of salinity each year. The Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior controls almost 500,000 tons. Between 2010 and 2020, an additional 999,000 tons of salt with threaten farmland annually. The current EQIP program offers matching funding to private farmers or interested citizen groups implementing conservation practices.
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