Colorado
Why Romney, 7 other senators want to amend 49-year-old Colorado River salinity bill
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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mitt Romney is joining a bipartisan group of Western senators pushing a bill that seeks to reduce Colorado River salinity, which they contend will “provide greater support” for the river’s water users.
Romney and Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, introduced the Colorado River Salinity Control Fix Act on Wednesday, a bill that seeks to amend the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act by increasing the federal cost-share of salinity control projects introduced in the original 1974 legislation.
The original bill set up services like the Bureau of Reclamation’s Basin States Program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentives Program that helped farmers, ranchers and other water users mitigate naturally-occurring salinity in the Colorado River. Higher salinity levels can impact crop yields and kill trees in the river basin, and even limit which types of crops can be planted, if at all, the senators say.
The West’s “historic” drought has impacted the Colorado River, resulting in a drop in hydropower revenues, while the costs of implementing salinity projects are soaring, Romney explained. Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming; Dianne Feinstein, D-California; John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado; Alex Padilla, D-California; and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Arizona, are also cosponsors of the proposed legislation.
“Reducing the salinity of the Colorado River benefits Utah — and its sister Basin states — by ensuring that we meet water quality standards while increasing the economic opportunities and infrastructure of our local communities,” Romney said in a statement Wednesday. “I’m proud to cosponsor this bipartisan legislation, which is a long-sought priority for Utah, to help our state shoulder the costs of desalinizing the Colorado River.”
Almost 40 million people within seven states and more than 30 tribes rely on the river for water, including Utah. The Utah Division of Water Resources says the river accounts for a little more than a quarter of the water used in the state and it estimates about 60% of Utahns are directly benefitted by it.
The proposed legislation has the support of the leaders of both Utah Colorado River Commissioner Gene Shawcroft and Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum executive director Don Barnett, who each say the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program is a vital tool over the years.
They are also well aware of the challenges the program faces. For example, Barnett explained Wednesday that salinity damages still exceed $350 million annually and the power sales from federal projects within the Colorado River Basin are “insufficient to provide the needed cost-share dollars.”
The Colorado River Salinity Control Fix Act will have to go through Congress and be signed by the president. However, Shawcroft said he believes changes to the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act will “shore up the program’s finances and ensure that needed salinity projects are adequately funded in the future” should it go into law.