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. . . . . . . . . . . ..s:::. o 1-"- w results in an economic loss since fewer acres of crops can be grown. (4) By changing the management regime and applying alter- native production practices, some salinity effects can be mitigated but only by incurring additional costs. These alternatives include drain installation, ditch lining, land leveling, deep plowing, planting bed modification, sprinkler and drip irrigation, and increased irrigation frequency. (5) The last alternative is to plant salt tolerant crops. An economic loss would usually occur since many salt tolerant crops ordinarily produce a lower economic return. "J:l:./ Damage estimates were made by the Bureau of Reclamation using l3 the Sun model. Sun determined that for the 469,200 acres in Imperial Valley, there would be an estimated $16 per acre reduction in net farm income or a penalty effect of an average of 5 cents per mg/l per acre per year if salinity were allowed to increase by 320 mg/l. The Bureau identified projects of their own or irrigation districts where crop va lue data were available. Using the representative district or project data, they then determined the re lative crop values as compared to that determined by Sun for Imperial Valley. Damages were estimated as being proportional to the value of crop. Based on this procedure and by utilizing an economic "input-output model" as developed for the EPA 14 study ,the direct and indirect agricultural damages were calculated. See Table VI-l. 15 . Young Franklin, and Noble note some shortcomlllgs of the Sun model on which the Bureau estimates are based as follows: , (1) There is no attempt to establish a minimum leaching fraction 21 ,I., .'AI