Reuse of Drainage Water for Irrigation: Results of Imperial Valley Study: I. Hypothesis, Experimental Procedures, and Cropping Results

Abstract

An irrigation/cropping management strategy has been developed to facilitate the use of brackish waters for irrigation, with the goal of expanding the available water supply and minimizing the otT-site pollution potential of drainage disposal. A field experiment conducted in the Imperial Valley of California to test the strategy has produced four years of cropping results. After seedling establishment, when the crops were in a sufficiently mature, salt-tolerant growth stage, brackish drainage water (Alamo River) was substituted for the normal water (Colorado River) to irrigate wheat and sugarbeets (in a succes-