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<br />o <br />Q conservation subsidy. The oppoitunity cost of water facing ttle hrmer is tne <br />O~ <br />~~ lr.arg1nal price to use the water for irrigation plus the conservation 5UDSfC:y. <br /> <br />Moreover, any correfnat1on of water conservation subsidies and water pr~ce that <br /> <br />has the same sum will yield results. <br /> <br />By cOmbining ta...x and subsidy, the <br /> <br />opportunity cost of 'fIIater could be increased to achieve greater salt lcae: <br /> <br />reductions at any given government cost share or cost per ton. <br /> <br />Land Retirement. <br /> <br />Our analysis supports the conclusion of Young and <br /> <br />Leathers that a whole-farm land retirement strategy would be cost-effective. <br /> <br />As noted earlier for Ue "baseline" run, net rents to irrigation average about <br /> <br />S50 per acre, equal to about Hl per ton of salt discharged. <br /> <br />This resu1t <br /> <br />demonstrates that upstream irrigators are the "least cost evoiders" in the <br /> <br />Colorado River basin, fmply1ng that the economfcally efffcient solution <br /> <br />(minimum basin wide cost) is full-farm land retirement. Those lanes ha'dng the <br /> <br />highest potential for salt loading tend to be the least producthe. !-Ience, <br /> <br />employment and income losses would be less on farr.:s w1th highly sal1ne 50115, <br /> <br />and net social costs per ton of salt removed would be lower as well. <br /> <br />Land ret1rement also ..ould aU!;jment downstream flows for increased <br /> <br />hydropower, irrigation and sal1nit)' dilution. <br /> <br /><It should be recognized that <br /> <br />under the ColoradO River Compact of 1922, such water savings would be subject <br /> <br />to reappropriation within the Upper Basin). This potential benefit would not <br /> <br />accr\le to the other control strategies, because the "conserved" "aters ""auld <br /> <br />not have been evaporated if incenthe methods were adopted, and "Would be free <br /> <br />to flow downstream. Gfbbon's estimates (Table 7-5) imply that do"nriver annual <br /> <br />hydropower tenef1ts wOuld be about S25 per acre retiree. Offstream lower basin <br /> <br />benefits in the margfnal use (irrigat10n of forage crops) ..111 va.ry ..1tn <br /> <br />17 <br />