Quality of water in the upper Colorado River basin

In a drainage area as large as the Colorado River Basin there are naturally large differences in the quality of the surface waters. The chemical character of the water at six gaging stations on the Colorado River from near the headwaters to near the mouth is shown by the analyses in Table 1.

It will be seen that the concentration of dissolved solids increased from 64 ppm (0.09 tons per ac ft) in the headwaters to 699 ppm (0.95 tons per ac ft) near the mouth.