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| Tile is an important part of reclamation work, in fact there is tile or drainage wells all over the southwestern irrigation projects.
If you get 40" of rain you install tile but if you get 40" of irrigation don't you think you would have similar benefits on similar soils.
A number of the irrigation projects are located in valleys with tall mountains nearby, and because of the mediterian climate you do not get moisture during the summer, during the winter and spring when the precipitation occours it wouldn't be uncommon for water to flow underground from those mountains and either start bubbling up in places down below or create a pearched water table below with dry dirt on Tom and just below the surface standing water.
Another reason would be the salt balance. Through irrigation you are applying water that already ran off other land so it is carrying minerals with it.
Now you are applying that water with minerals in other land the water will be used through transportation and evaporation and the minerals will be left behind. tile helps that water off land that has stratified soil layers that prevent it from creating a salty pearched water table.
When the bureau of reclimation first started with their projects in the west they had the same idea as many of the posters on here but soon found out in their first project the Newlands project near Reno NV that there was a need for drainage as well. After that any new project they started they both needed to find a supply and a home for its drainage water. Many of the numerous local and private irrigation projects throughout the west also found themselves in similar circumstances shortly after irrigation. Many of these small local districts or mutual water company's will install shallow wells around their conveyance and pump this shallow water back into the irrigation system. | |
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Tile in new Mexico
