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General Description
The Sinbad Valley Unit is located in western Colorado, south of the town of Gateway. Salt Creek drains Sinbad Valley and has been identified by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as a point source of saline groundwater contributing an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 tons of salts per year to the Colorado River System. Saline groundwater discharges from the Paradox member of the Hermosa Formation into the alluvium in Salt Creek through a series of springs and seeps near the mouth of the Sinbad Valley.
BLM initiated a study for the interception and disposal of these saline waters in 1982 and completed a report on Sinbad Valley in April 1983. This report recommended that Reclamation assume lead responsibility and funding.
The Sinbad Valley study indicates that additional information is needed before final selection can be made among the various alternatives. First, additional discharge and conductivity measurements are required to define salt loads of high flows; second, onsite evaporation data are needed to further refine the sizing of evaporation ponds (a pan evaporation station should be established and operated in Sinbad Valley for at least 1 year); third, the abandoned wildcat well, No. 1 Sinbad Unit, should be evaluated for injection suitability. Other questions which need to be resolved include water rights and the compatibility of the project with existing land uses.
Before a preferred alternative can be selected, an environmental assessment will need to be completed. Sewemup Mesa, located immediately east of Sinbad Valley, is a BLM wilderness study area and is also proposed as an outstanding natural area in the resource management plan. The area has high visual sensitivity, both onsite and along a powerline alignment, and has peregrine falcons nesting in it. Reclamation has suspended study of this area for salinity control because of the project's small size, potential environmental impacts, and marginal cost effectiveness.
See other Basinwide Salinity Control Projects. |
