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Show ' X-- - ia Pi J , ft ,1 V- '1, , V- - 'tTTi -'I '" I it' 11 VERNAL CITY-Uintah County volunteer firemen show new aerial fire truck which was purchased by the two entities for $217,000. The new truck will be used primarily for structure fires. Administration favors portion of Colorado River salinity bill By Helene C. Monberg, Vernal Express Washington Correspondent Washington The Administration favors only one portion of new Colorado Col-orado River salinity legislation authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to carry on a salinity control con-trol program in the Colorado River on a voluntary basis with cooperating farmers on its own. Currently, several agencies within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) do on-farm work with Colorado Col-orado River Basin farmers, but the work is carried on by contract with the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation and under some severe limitations. The new legislation sponsored in the Senate by Sen. William L. Armstrong, R-Colo., and others and in the House by Rep. Ray Kogovsek, D-Colo., and other provides for both a separate USDA salinity control program and an update of the Bureau of Reclamation work on salinity control. The Administration does not favor the Interior Department portion of the Armstrong-Kogovsek legislation, on grounds of cost, although Armstrong's office said on Aug. 26 that it had not seen Interior's detailed comments on the Armstrong bill to date. Hearings on the bill are scheduled on Sept. 15 before the Water Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Administration is exceedingly cost-conscious because of the huge budget deficit, which is why it favors the USDA approach to salinity. Agriculture Secretary John R. Block said in a letter to Chairman James A. McClure, R-Idaho, of the Senate Energy Committee dated Aug. 22, "The Administration proposed a single appropriation of $12.5 million in its fiscal Year 1984 budget to consolidate USDA funding for salinity control in the Colorado River. In making this budget decision, the cost-effectiveness of both USDI (Interior) (In-terior) and USDA proposals were considered. con-sidered. The (USDA) on-farm measures are generally more cost-effective cost-effective than the structural measures of USDI. While both on-farm and other measures are needed to meet water qualify objectives, the use of on-farm measures will reduce future needs for more expensive off-farm measures," the McClure letter to Block stated. Block noted that the 1984 budget request, re-quest, which the Administration still stands behind, specifically provides for $12.5 million to continue on-farm work on the Uintah project in Utah, $4.8 million to continue on-farm work on the Grand Valley project in Colorado, Col-orado, and $1.4 million each to begin the Moapa and Virgin Valley projects in Nevada and Arizona respectively. In addition, the budget calls for $150,000 to complete planning studies for on-farm work on the Price-San Rafael project in Utah, the Mancos Valley project in Colorado, and the Palo Verde project in California. "Of the $12.5 million total, $10 million is for cost sharing through the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Conser-vation Service Program, $2.3 million is for Soil Conservation Service planning, plan-ning, technical assistance and monitoring and evaluation, and $200,000 is for the Extension Service's education activities," the Block letter to McClure stated. All are USDA agencies which have been involved with salinity problems along the Colorado River in the past, mainly through cooperative . agreements and contracts with the Interior In-terior Department's Bureau of Reclamation. USDA sought the new legislation, although it had problems getting it through the Office of Management and Budget. The Bureau of Reclamation has been trying to build structural projects pro-jects such as wells and dykes to try to concentrate salt from the Colorado River in several areas along the river, and thereby lighten the salt load on the river. The more successful USDA programs pro-grams have been to work with farmers on projects along the Colorado River to teach them how to reduce salt loading in the river. In one project, Wellton-Mohawk in Arizona, USDA soil conservation experts persuaded the local farmers and their water district to retire large acreages of land from protection. USDA has deemed the authority that it has now to carry on its on-farm salinity work in the Basin is "not well suited in dealing with the unique and complicated problems of the multi-state multi-state salinity control." The new legislation would, if enacted, authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to identify salt source areas, develop plans to reduce the salt load at such sources, provide technical and cost-sharing assistance, conduct monitoring and evaluation, and carry out research, demonstration and education activities. It would remove several restrictions in the current law, such as precluding direct dealings by USDA officials with irrigation districts "which often would offer a more effective solution" to on-farm on-farm salinity problems; a payment restriction of $3500 per participant per year, which tends to string out the work over several years, and other less onerous limitations. It would enable the Department of Agriculture to establish a single Colorado River account ac-count which would allow the work to be done more promptly and efficiently, efficient-ly, according to Block's letter to McClure. |