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Salinity Investigation Manila, UT

Project Chief: Steven Gerner, USGS Salt Lake City, Utah
Cooperator:
Period of Project: April 2004 to

PROBLEM

Birch Spring Draw discharges agricultural drainage from Lucerne Valley and tailwater from Sheep Creek and Peoples Canals.

During 2004-05, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) investigated the occurrence and distribution of dissolved solids in water from the agricultural lands near Manila, Utah, and determined the amount of dissolved solids being discharged to Flaming Gorge Reservoir (FGR), less the amount of dissolved solids imported by canals, to be 40,200 tons (Gerner and others, 2006 [available online at http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/sir2006_5211]). The most substantial source of dissolved solids discharging from the study area to the reservoir was discharge from Birch Springs Draw (BSD), which had a mean dissolved-solids load measured near the mouth of 65 tons per day and an estimated annual load of about 23,000 tons. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is currently in the implementation stage of a salt-mitigation project in the Manila/Washam area that is assisting land owners with converting fields from flood irrigation to sprinkler irrigation. Improvements to irrigation in the Manila agricultural lands should result in approximately 70 percent of irrigated agriculture in the Manila area using either wheel-line or pivot sprinklers within the next 3 to 5 years (Ed Whicker, NRCS, oral comm., 2007). Birch Spring Draw drains most of the Lucerne Valley which contains most of the agricultural land near Manila and where the largest impacts from the salt-mitigation project should occur. As part of the project implementation, and in support of future projects, the USGS is monitoring the dissolved solids in BSD and selected drains and seeps to observe changes that occur during implementation of the NRCS salt-mitigation project.

OBJECTIVES

1) Determine salt loading to the Green River from agricultural lands near Manila, Utah.
2) Determine if changes in monthly and annual dissolved-solids discharge occur and how those changes may be related to changes in irrigation practices in the Manila/Washam area.

RELEVANCE AND BENEFITS

This study will determine salt loading to the Green River from irrigated lands near Manila, Utah. The study meets several USGS project goals and relevance as outlined in USGS Water Resources Division WRD Memorandum 95.44, including (1) advancing the knowledge of a regional hydrologic system, (2) furnishing hydrologic data and information that contribute to protection of life and property, and (3) contributing data to a national data base that will be used to advance the understanding of regional and temporal variations in hydrologic conditions. The objectives and benefits of this study address goals outlined in the WRD Strategic Direction for 1998-2008.

APPROACH

A streamgage (USGS site 09230300) was installed near the outflow of Birch Spring Draw (BSD) on May 11, 2007. Discharge, specific conductance, and the water temperature of BSD streamflow have been continuously monitored since the gage was installed and these values are being reported via the web at URL http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ut/nwis/rt. Monthly site visits have been made to this gage to maintain and calibrate the instrumentation. In addition, periodic water-quality samples have been collected from BSD to define the relation between dissolved-solids concentration and specific conductance. Discharge and specific conductance or dissolved-solids concentration have been measured periodically at other major drains and seeps discharging directly to FGR from Lucerne and South Valleys and at the outflow from Antelope Wash. These periodic data will be used to define a relation between the dissolved-solids discharged in stream flow in BSD and the total dissolved-solids discharged to FGR from monitored seeps, drains, and streams in Lucerne Valley, South Valley, and Antelope Wash. This relation, and the continuous data collected at site 09230300, can be used to determine the net annual load of dissolved solids discharged from Lucerne and South Valleys and Antelope Wash.

PRODUCTS

All data collected in the proposed study will be archived in the USGS NWIS database for permanent storage. Data collected as part of the study will be published in the electronic USGS Water Resources Data Report for Utah. Interim results of this study will be published in annual administrative reports. A summary of study results will be published as a USGS Scientific Investigations Report.

CURRENT UPDATE

Data collection is continuing.