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Arkansas River, settled drains, and dilapidated observation manholes continue to be at the core of drainage problems in the lower valley. It is known that many of the drainage districts had problems meeting annual assessments during the Depression. This resulted in considerable deferred maintenance on the drainage systems. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation under the Roosevelt Administration provided funds to refinance many of the indebted district serial bonds. However,this refinancing was followed by another reduction in average annual farm income due to the termination of sugar production in the 1970s. This economic slump led to further deferred maintenance of the drainage systems. In subsequent years, farm income declined further,leading to reluctance on the part of growers to raise drainage district assessments to meet an emerging problem for crop production in the lower valley. Meanwhile,those growers who were familiar with the whereabouts of tile drain systems were beginning to pass on. Today,there is a core of older growers whose knowledge will be vital to any proposed rehabilitation of the lower valley's drainage systems. Action must be taken immediately to safeguard this important information. Their knowledge will be essential to the proposed study's success. It is known that many of the subsurface drains continue to carry substantial water. This is observable at identifiable outlets along wasteways,and by observing flows through very dilapidated wooden manholes throughout the lower valley. Some engineering designs of the drainage systems are available in the archives of local county assessor's offices. However,they are incomplete and often do not represent the final installation locations,particularly of the tile drain systems. Only the location of principal open collector drains is clearly observable. Over the years,and often due to the transfer of ownership of land,there has been a loss of knowledge of the whereabouts of the tile drains under farm ground leading to these open surface collectors. This has often led to the tile drains being damaged during land preparation or during the installation of natural gas and other utility pipelines in the valley. Although cropping and irrigation practices have changed over the years,the drainage network is still used to clear standing water from the land in wet years and to manage a generally high water table in normal years. Growers recently interviewed by the Sociology Water Lab affirm this fact. Even recent drought years have shown considerable flows in the surface drainage networks. The predominance of clay loam and loam soils in the Lower Arkansas Valley appears to be an important reason for the continued need of the drainage districts. The natural surface drainage off bench lands and from highline canals negotiating this natural surface drainage also contribute to the need for proper drainage(see Map 2). More modem drainage systems, such as those found in the U.S.Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project in the State of Washington,were built with observation manholes located at every junction of lines in the tile drain system, and at the location of pipe size changes as well.10 It is believed that the drainage systems in the Lower Arkansas Valley were designed with a limited number of observation manholes,making it difficult to track the performance of the valley's drainage system over time. Manholes are also needed for maintenance, and a lack of adequately constructed manholes of a width and depth sufficient to access drains do not appear to have been part of the early design of drainage systems in the Lower Arkansas Valley. 1°Personal visit by the P.I.and discussions with Mr.Dan Morasch,Drainage Technician,South Columbia Basin Irrigation District,Pasco,Washington. 9