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Show SNikvNs;-NV-':-;'";: , Wesfern Resources WRAP-UP Colorado River budget and programs 8V Hl" l" Mo"" rnl Kprs jhnKtoir-Even during this time of 'j'tets atKl program cutbacks, the ,nA &ver lUsl" IS ottms son,e ior coiKvrns addressed by the in Umimstration and tight-fisted of M.i"-'Soment aiul Budit US'. administration sent to Congress J t; proposed legislation to authorize W million program over a id-year wi to be conducted under the aegis he I' S- Department of .Agriculture's ;nv Agricultural Stabilization and Ration Service iASCS. with a ; jf wWuig SO percent of the salt n the Colorado River System. n line with this legislation, the I'SDA vet for fiscal w hich went to Con-s Con-s on Jan 31 included provision for 55 million "for a separate Colorado jr Basin Salinity Control Program." SPA agencies have spent money for tfal wars on salinity problems within Colorado River Basin, including all mts of AriMia. California. Colorado, uda. No Mexico, I'tah and Wyom-Bat Wyom-Bat the funding was alw ays under iecenl appropriations for ASCS and Conservation Service iSCS. cder USCA's new policy of targeting liswbere there is the most need. OMB $ffing to go along with this new pro-is pro-is in I'SDA to be administered by CS. acconir to I'SDA sources. :orthe first year, under this new pn ia the Administration has asked $10 jon for oo-the-farm cost-sharing by tcipacg farmers through ASCS. 2.3 jen for SCS. and S-JOO.000 for eduea-a eduea-a iroLgh the Extension Service. The S nidir-g is to be used in three ways : i Trillion for technical assistance. e.XX) for monitoring areas where SCS : worked with irrigators battling ictv. notably at the Wellton-Mohaw k :;ect near Yuma. Ariz., and $200,000 piannLtg. George Stem of SCS told stem Resources Wrap-up iVRV) on Feb. 16. Projectwise. seven salinitv-source areas in five states are targeted for aid under this new program in fiscal 1984, according ac-cording to Orin T. Hanson, deputy director direc-tor of the ASCS conservation and environmental en-vironmental protection division. The $12.55 million requested w ill be spent as follows: $4 8 million for L'intah Valley in I'tah and $4 8 million for Grand Valley in Colorado; $1.4 million for the Lower Virgui Valley in Arizona and Nevada and $1.4 million for Moupa Valley in Nevada; and $150,000 in planning money for later work with farmers in Mancos Valley in Colorado, the Price-San Rafael Valley in I'tah and the Palo Verde Valley in California. Hansen told WRW Feb' 16. These figures are not only contingent on Congress approving the I'SDA budget request for this new I'SDA program but on its authorization as well later this year. INTERIOR SALINITY PROGRAM This program is separate from but related to the Colorado River salinity program now being carried on by the In-tenor In-tenor Department 's Bureau of Reclamation Reclama-tion under a Colorado River salinity control con-trol act passed in 1974 i PL 93-SM) . Under this program, the Bureau of Reclamation Reclama-tion has programmed $32. 930.000 in construction con-struction money and $4,410,000 in planning plann-ing money for 19t4. a total of $37,340,000. This is quite a drop from the $53,9t?0,000 in construction money and the $5,304,152 in planning money that the Bureau has programmed for salinity control in the Colorado River this year a total of $59.2S4.151 for fiscal vear 19S3 ending on Sept. 30. This is due primarily to two reasons, Bureau sources have told WRW. One is that the Bureau has delayed contract awards on the big desalting plant to be built near Yuma. Ariz., to clean up salty sal-ty Colorado River water before it flows into Mexico, due to budget consideration. The other is that the Bureau is looking for industrial uses for salty Colorado River water as alternatives to the work it has been doing, such as ponding and well disposal of the most saline water by key sites to reduce the salt load in the river, particularly in the Lower Basin. "We want to explore all possibilities," the Bureau said Feb. 2. Colorado River Basin interests have been unsuccessful to date in getting the 1974 act updated to increase the Bureau's salinity control role on the Colorado River, even though the Bureau's overall budget for 1984 has more than half of the total committed to Colorado River Basin projects and diversion projects using Colorado River water, such as the Bonneville Bon-neville Unit of the Central Utah Project. A new bill will be introduced during the last week in February by Sen. William L. .Armstrong, R-Colo., to update the 1974 Act, but Bureau sources aren't optimistic about Administration backing. Here are the salinity units now being studied by the Bureau of Rec. and their dates of completion, with their 1984 budget request: 1984: Big Sandy, Wyo., $381,000; McElmo Creek, Colo., $-259,000; Uintah. Utah, $269,000. 1984: Advance planning. Lower Gun-' nison, Stage 1, $530,000. 1985: Meeker Dome, Colo., monitoring only $100,000; Price-San Rafael. Utah. $400,000. 1986: Glenwood-Dotsero, Colo., $300,000; LaVerkin Springs, Utah, $100,000. 1987: Dirty Devil. Utah, $800,000; Lower Virgin, Ariz-New, $80,000. 1988: Lower Gunnison Basin. Stage II, $270,000. In addition a total of $760,000 has been allocated in 1984 for finding other uses and methods of disposing of saline Colorado Col-orado River water, and $112,000 has been allocated for support studies. |