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<br />(.~ <br />(:J <br />Iv <br />co <br /> <br />SUMMARY <br /> <br />Saline waste water from the Huntington Power Plant, Utah Power & <br /> <br />Light Company, was used to irrigate barley, wheat, corn, potatoes, and <br /> <br />four types of forage in 1981. This was the fifth consecutive year of <br /> <br />irrigation with saline water and the fourth year of a direct comparison <br /> <br />with a normal-fresh water irrigation. Variable amounts of water have <br /> <br />been applied with the line source sprinkler technique to investigate <br /> <br />situations where both leaching of salts occurred and where all of the <br /> <br />salts added were stored in the plant root zone. <br /> <br />The yield response of crops was variable, ranging from a 10 percent <br /> <br />increase in yield of alfalfa grown on the salty plots compared to the <br /> <br />fresh plots, to 50 percent reduction in yield of potatoes. The yield of <br /> <br />mixed forage plots using salty irrigation water was 96 percent of that <br /> <br />using fresh irrigation water. The yields of barley, wheat and corn <br /> <br />grown on the salty plots was about 80 percent of that grown on the <br /> <br />fresh water plots which is only a slight decrease since 1980. Generally <br /> <br />the percent yield reduction was less for high irrigation, with leaching, <br /> <br />compared to lower irrigation with no leaching of salts beyond the root <br /> <br />zone. The yield reduction of potato plots that were covered to minimize <br /> <br />foliar burn, was essentially the same as plots not covered. Thus, it <br /> <br />appears that the yield reductions were not associated with any "acid-like" <br /> <br />materials in the irrigation water as was suspected in 1980. <br /> <br />Soil samples, collected in both the fresh and salty plots, showed <br /> <br />slightly more increase in salinity in the salty plots and the reverse <br /> <br />in the fresh plots in 1981 than measured in previous years. The salinity <br />