WSP11706

• File Number: 8271.300
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - General Information and Publications-Reports
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 6/1/1980
• Title: Development of Procedures to Evaluate Salinity Management Strategies in Irrigation Return Flows
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

stream bed areas cause near surface water
to rise to the surface and evaporate leaving
appreciable deposits of salt along river
or canal banks or bottoms.

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A
N

2. Natural salt pickup from the con-
t r ibut log drainage area (overland process).

3. Salt loading from irrigated agricul-
ture. The flow components are canal seepage,
deep percolation, and field drainage. Salt
loadings from field drainage depend on the
soil water system as previously discussed.

Empirical salt loading equations

Two empirical methods were tried for
representing overall salt loading from
natural and agricultural sources.

3,0

Method 1: A linear regression model fit
to empirical data (Fifield 1979) represented
the incremental salt loading between any two
points of a stream by:

6 load = m (6 flow) + b
in which

(2.1)

6 load

stream loading, applied ei-
ther on the basis of an indi-
vidual constituent or total
dissolved solids (TD5), and m
and b are regression coeffi-
cients.

The slope of the regression line, m,
represents the net average concentration of
the constituent ion or T05. Equation 2.1 was
used to estimate stream loading by "un-

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1000 2000 3000 4000
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY (EC)-(mlcromhos at 25OC)

Figure 2.7, Drainage flow versus Ee in the Uintah Basin drains (1976),

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