Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program

The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program was authorized in the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act and was repealed and replaced by the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) in the 1996 farm bill (P.L. 104-127). Administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, it was used to implement salinity control measures, primarily to manage irrigation water using financial and technical assistance to landowners. This program supported U.S. efforts to meet international treaty obligations for downstream water quality in Mexico. The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation administers its own Colorado River Salinity control Program.

"Recognizing the rapidly increasing salinity concentration in the Lower Colorado River and its impact on water users, the Colorado River Basin States came together in 1973 and organized the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum (Forum). In 1974, in coordination with the Department of the Interior and the U.S. State Department, the Forum worked with Congress to pass of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act (Act). Title I of the Act deals with programs downstream of Imperial Dam that enable the United States to meet its salinity commitments to Mexico. Title II of the Act created the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program (Program) which focuses on improving the water quality of the Colorado River to U.S. users upstream of Imperial Dam.

Since implementation of the Program, measures have been put in place which now reduce the annual salt load of the Colorado River by more than 1.2 million tons. Most of the salinity control measures, implemented principally by the Bureau of Reclamation through its Basinwide Program and the Natural Resources Conservation Service through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, focus on improving agricultural water efficiency practices which in turn reduce the leaching of salts from the saline soils prevalent in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The Bureau of Land Management also implements salinity control practices on the vast federal lands found in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Through these collective efforts the salinity concentration at Hoover, Parker and Imperial Dams has been reduced by about 100 mg/L and damages to Lower Basin water users have been reduced by approximately $300 million per year. However, even with these efforts the quantified damages to U.S. users are still approximately $354 million per year. Damages are projected to increase to $671 million per year by 2040 if the Program does not continue to be aggressively implemented."

References[]

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Congressional Research Service.

•  This article incorporates public domain material from the Congressional Research Service document: Jasper Womach. "Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition" (PDF).