Skip to main content

Irrigation Return Flows in Southern Idaho

Carter, David L. (1972) Irrigation Return Flows in Southern Idaho. pp. 47-53. In: Proc. Natl. Conf. on Managing Irrigated Agriculture to Improve Water Qual. 1972/05/16-18.

[img] PDF
248.pdf

Download (257kB)

Abstract

The quantity and quality of irrigation return
flows from a 203,000-acre irrigation tract in
southern Idaho were measured and compared to
the quantity and quality of the irrigation water.
Return flows for a typical water year amounted
to 929,350 acre feet representing 64% of the
total water input to the tract. The total salt concentration
in the subsurface drainage water
was more than twice that found in the irrigation
water. The mean electrical conductivity of the
subsurface drainage water was 1040µ mhos/cm
which is as low as in some irrigation waters. The
Na+ concentration increased more than four
times as water passed through the soil and became
subsurface drainage water. Similar comparisons
were made for other cations and
anions. Surface runoff water did not differ from
irrigation water in chemical quality. Surface
drainage water from a 3,000-acre subregion contained
up to 3.06 tons of sediment per acre foot
during the midpart of the irrigation season.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
NWISRL Publication Number: 0248
Subjects: Mass Import - unclassified
Depositing User: Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited: 20 Nov 2010 21:56
Last Modified: 17 Feb 2017 18:59
Item ID: 989
URI: https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/989