Show JL Western Resources wrap-up Increasing use of Colorado River By C Washington-An experiment Is going m neer and a new la out on the salinity control pro- gram at Grand with the tame intent to make more effective use of water from the Colorado And to make more efficient use of water for irrigation throughout the The US Salinity Laboratory of to an ex w m a soil scientist at the me experiment may result in lull y The water is being pumped from local and the experiment is designed to reduce drainage water from the big San Joaquin irrigation project in Those helping to support the ment are the Kern County Water Agen- the California Department of Water and the Bureau of according to Jan van director of the Riverside tab- The Yuma Projects Office of the Bureau of Reclamation has asked van to make a detailed pro- pl on the possible use of Wellton- Mohawk drainage water in Arizona to irrigate salt-tolerant Van told the We Technical Field Committee on tion drainage at a meeting In he and his staff at the Riverside lab believe it is not necessary S before it flows back into the Colorado Kiver ana on to Construction of a big desalting plant near Yuma is now underway and is scheduled for completion in Under Bureau of Reclamation current Z t Colorado was damaging irrigated crops in On the basis of work done at the at van is of day desalting plant at Yuma may not be needed or it can be reduced in The average annual salinity in the Colorado delivered to Mexico bet- 1961 and increased from about to 1500 parts salt per million parts of largely due to an increase in the discharge from the Wellton-Mohawk That amount of salinity in the Col- orado River angered the but the Bakersfield experiment indicates cotton can be grown on water six times as and grown ac- cording to van And not just at the Riverside lab director wrote to Western Resources Wrap-up on Van Isaac a scientist at the In- in is spending a year with at the Riverside has had positive experience with the use of saline groundwater for cotton irrigation in the The salt con- in the Israeli desert ment considerably less than at our Bakersfield experiment it ex- that of the Wellton-Mohawk and the Israeli soil content high enough in sodium to complicate van experience of the Israeli scientist and the Riverside lab scientists sup- porta our that Wellton- Mohawk drainage water could be used to irrigate salt-tolerant crops in the he Mexico does not have the manage- expertise to handle such edit and construction is underway Any reallocation of the water from the ment of and the various Colorado 80 boto the Bureau of Reclamation and the water expert in the seven Col- orado River Basin states are cool to On this wrote are ful- ly aware of some of the Institutional We are not naive enough to think there are easy We do that it behooves us as to call attention to possible solutions of problems even If they do re- quire institutional if In the we open the potential for more effective use of our natural Van included in his let- tar to a copy of the now-famous that Rhoades gave at a water meeting in in Rhoades the data developed at Uie River- side lab indicate that agricultural drainage waters are suitable for irrigation of many crops and soils under proper soil and manage- ment a potential that has been largely ignored in the past and should be There is sufficient experience using brackish waters for irrigation to support the recommendation that drainage waters can be safely used productively for ir- use of saline agricultural drainage waters of require more careful management particularly during seedling with good and more fre- quent and liberal and more the benefits of in- creased fewer and fewer smaller-capacity drainage-outflow con- and tion of our land and water resources warrant their utilization for Rhoades stated at the conclusion of his Rhoades listed three types of crops as being salt Most salt tolerant are Bermuda tall wheat sugar beets and Next most tolerant are alfalfa and And in the last category are onions and That's over a dozen salt- tolerant Rhoades pointed out there are several types of drainage and SOme types are little changed In quality after going through a distribution The amounts of bicar- and sulphates in the soil are aiso important in assessing the suitability of drainage water for Rhoades pointed Rhoades' study included data on nine other irrigation districts and concluded most of drainage water could be used again irrigation They were San Joaquin Lake Mathews Coachella Valley and imperial Valley in Yakima Valley in Twin Falls area Valley in New Mexico and Grand Valley in Upper Colorado River because of ill vast reserves of oil shale and near-surface Is becoming one of most areas in tion for energy energy development will also result in increased salinity levels in the Colorado River mitigating alternatives are employed One of the most viable off-site alternatives is irrigation im- in agricultural the Grand Valley of- fers a unique opportunity for coor- energy development with im- proved irrigation water according to a report prepared by a team headed by Gaylord V. Skoger- professor of agricultural engineer- ing at Colorado State University under a contract with the Environmental Pro- Agency By renting and leasing water not needed for Irrigation 01 Grand Grand users could pay for their irrigation Im- and release water needed upstream for energy and other in- The policy of EPA for the entire Colorado River Basin could be satisfied because the irrigation im- at Grand Valley would exactly offset salinity due to energy it Such vestments have the added advantage of increasing agricultural at Grand The ex- developed at Grand Valley would be applicable throughout the the report The report indicates that the state of Colorado would have to fine-tune Its water law to allow for such upstream transfers of even on a rental or basis law should be modified or changed to reflect state en- in the renting transferring or selling of water rights to other uses and places so long as the vested rights of others are it our system of water law places emphasis upon the right to use not the duty to use it the study EPA sources here said they knew of f But has addressed a number of panels since it was completed in August and reap- tion is an Interested response by Basin S' B VM VW M 1 HH v w V v f 4 a y s 1 I W i v h M J R RENEWING THE Brownie Promise is Audrey Leader Gloria Hughes listens to the m ni 1 fV IA j 3 j r g If iK lm I K 1 V H L fl B I Hl 1 T M-r- m L IRm 'S Rl fi GIRL SCOUT Troop Circle in a horseshoe at their in- held They left to Kendra Paula Stacy Brandi Melin- Rashelle Audrey Debra Rachael Jennifer Bobby Jean Holli Deanna Rachelle Annette Allen and Dashel Leaders are Gloria Hughes and Daisy |