5 Colo. Code Regs. § 1002-39.3
Colorado is participating in the multi-state basin-wide approach for salinity management which utilizes state, interstate, and federal authorities and resources. The water quality standard for salinity in the Colorado River basin shall remain the same as adopted in 1976. That is, the water characteristics designed to maintain the following flow-weighted average annual values:
Below Hoover Dam 723 mg/l
Below Parker Dam 747 mg/l
At Imperial Dam 879 mg/l
*The term "water quality standard" as used in the Colorado Water Quality Control Act, section 25-5-204, C.R.S., is similar to the term criteria as used in the Federal Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. Section 303(c).
Should water development projects be completed before control measures are brought on line, temporary increases above the criteria could result and these increases will be in conformance with the standards, provided that, with completion of control measures, salinity would return to or below the criteria level.
Periodic increases above the criteria as a result of unfavorable reservoir conditions or periods of below normal annual river flows also will be in conformance with the standards, provided that, with satisfactory reservoir conditions and when river flows return to normal, concentrations are expected to be at or below the criteria level.
Nothing in this regulation shall be construed to alter, amend, repeal, construe, interpret, modify, or be in conflict with the provisions of the Boulder Canyon Project Act (45 Stat. 1057), the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act (54 Stat. 774), the Colorado River Storage Project Act (70 Stat. 105), the Colorado River Basin Project Act (82 Stat. 885), the Colorado River Compact, the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, or the Treaty with the United Mexican States (Treaty Series 994).
5 CCR 1002-39.3