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. as possible with the beneficiaries paying the improvement costs. The damages to agriculture are manifest in three ways. These are . Economic Damages of Salinity Degradation . .::.. o "'- N Agricultural Production. A number of estimates have been made of the damages that have and may be expected to occur from downstream use of the increasingly salty water in the Colorado Basin. The only comprehensive estimates have their roots in the work reported by the Environmental Protection AgencylO and by Sun. II . a limitation on the types of crops that may be grown a,nd irrigated, a reduction of crop yields as salinity levels increase, and increased costs . due to measures to avoid crop losses. The Bureau of Reclamation notes a number of possible actions by downstream irrigators. All of these involve economic losses. . "The alternatives available to irrigation water users are influenced by the availability of additional water. The primary means of combating detrimental salinity are to switch to salt tolerant varieties of crops or to apply more irrigation water and leach out excess salts. . (1) If the irrigator does nothing, he will suffer economic loss from decreased crop yields. . (2) If additional water is available, root zone salinity may be reduced by increasing leaching water applications. The irrigator would incur increased costs for purchase of water, for additional labor for water application, and for increased application of fertilizer to replace the fertilizer leached out, . (3) If no additional water is available, the irrigator can in- crease the leaching of salts frol}l the soil by applying the same amount of water to lesser acreage. This, of course, 20