Agricultural Drainage Water—How Should it be Regulated in California?

Abstract

The problem of managing the saline agricultural drainage water drained from San Joaquin Valley California farmland has confronted farmers and water developers for years. As the irrigated area in the valley has expanded, drainage problems have intensified, creating a need to manage an increasing volume of drainage water in an economically feasible and environmentally safe way. At Kesterson Reservoir near Los Banos, California, deaths and deformities of waterfowl have been linked to the existence of the trace element selenium (