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<br />-24- <br /> <br />accumulation as evaporation of water from the surface and <br /> <br />near-surface continues. It appears to us that many of the <br />landowners of the Valley are so overwhelmed by their opinion <br />of the value of sub-irrigation that they overlook the threat <br /> <br />of impending salinization and complete loss of their land. <br /> <br />The same conditions which resulted in the loss of <br /> <br />millions of acres of land in Pakistan are now operating in <br /> <br />the Closed Basin area. In Pakistan tens of millions of <br /> <br />dollars are now being spent trying to recover salinized land <br /> <br />by means of several thousand deep wells designed to lower <br /> <br />the water table. We are of the belief that the arrest of <br /> <br />salinization could be as important a contribution of this <br /> <br />project as the make-up of river Compact water. If done <br /> <br />now, the dilution can probably hold quality within Compact <br />limitations. Procrastination will increase the hazard of <br /> <br />impaired quality. <br /> <br />Although the U.S.B.R. studies which were developed by <br /> <br />White in Escalante, Utah indicated no consumptive use at <br /> <br />8 feet, facts for the Closed Basin would seem to discount <br /> <br />this conclusion. <br /> <br />Observation of the native rabbit brush and greasewood <br /> <br />vegetation of the region in areas where the water table ex- <br /> <br />tends to as deep as 10 feet below the ground surface and <br /> <br />in areas where the water table is only 3 feet below the <br /> <br />ground surface, revealed no significant differences in either <br /> <br />density or vigor of growth. This would tend to indicate that <br /> <br />L", ,4 ,I) <br />J.! .' ' '! <br />...;\..J\... ..Q <br />