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<br />N <br />~ <br />o <br />~ <br /> <br />30 Estimating Economic Impacts of Salinity... <br /> <br />Imperial County farmers faced not only water <br />problems, but problems with new types of <br />agricultural pests. <br /> <br />An irrigation district official stated that crop <br />patterns have consistently improved since 1946 <br />because of the tiling program's improvements to <br />the soil despite the increasingly saline irrigation <br />water. It was noted that in the last 30 to 40 <br />years, the Imperial Irrigation District has been <br />putting more salt into the Salton Sea than it has <br />been importing via irrigation water. Thus it is by <br />no means clear what proportion of cropping pat- <br />tern change is due to saline irrigation water and <br />resulting increases in soil salinity, in contrast to <br />economic factors and other non-farmer control- <br />led forces (such as pest or excessive heat or rain). <br /> <br />The various officials and farmers interviewed <br />in the area did not agree about what constitutes <br />excessive salinity in terms of attributing damages. <br />They were unable to quantify which problems <br />are caused by high groundwater and/or saline <br />irrigation water. In fact with the high <br />groundwater in the area of Wellton-Mohawk, the <br />quality of the irrigation water (as long as it <br />doesn't poison crops) is basically insignificant to <br />other farm operations. Yuma Project's assistant <br />director bluntly states that what is needed most <br />is more water, not necessarily a higher quality <br />water. Attribution of agricultural costs, other <br />than non-crop production costs appears to be <br />too complex to be categorized by cause such as <br />saline irrigation water, unusually heavy rains, <br />high groundwater, etc., without further study. <br />