The Use of Softened Colorado River Water for Home Gardens

Abstract

ITH the completion of the Metropolitan Water District’s aqueduct and distribution system, Colorado River water will he available in Southern California. On the basis of exhaustive tests, methods and cost of softening this water for industrial and home use have been determined. A description of the process was given in June, 1939, by Julian Hinds, Assistant Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (1). He states that for agricultural purposes it is better to use the water without softening, and to this the author believes all soils men and agriculturists will agree. Additional information about the softening plant is given by Montgomery and Aultman (2). The present paper will discuss the USC of treated Colorado River water on the lawns, gardens, and shrubbery of home owners in the Metropolitan Water District. The water reaching Cajalco Reservoir will closely approximate the composition of Colorado River water at Yuma. Table 1, giving the composition of Colorado River water, is based on 43 weekly samplings and analyses during the calendar year 1939, omitting 4 samplings in January because of a flood in the Bill Williams River and 4 samples in September and October because of heavy local rains. The analyses were made by the Division of Irrigation Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, and supplied by C. S. Scofield. The United States Geological Survey has furnished the author with analyses and discharges at Willow Beach since 1934, from which a weighted five-year average, from September 30, 1934, to September 30, 1939, yields 690 p.p.m. dissolved solids. Adding 5 per cent for evaporation loss between