Salt Accumulation: A Long-Term Challenge for the Central Valley
The Central Valley is one of California’s most important economic and agricultural regions, encompassing approximately 40 percent of the state’s land area. It supplies water to communities, businesses, and industries throughout California and produces food that supports local, national, and global markets. Over the past 150 years, population growth and expanding agricultural, industrial, and municipal activities have contributed to the gradual accumulation of salts in the Valley’s soils, groundwater, and surface waters.
Salt accumulation is a cumulative consequence of the water supply and management practices that support homes, communities, agriculture, industry, and economic growth throughout the Central Valley. Agricultural irrigation, food processing, municipal wastewater treatment, and other water management practices can add salts to the environment or concentrate salts already present. In some areas, the import and export of water supplies further influence salt levels, creating complex regional challenges that require coordinated management.
The CV-SALTS Prioritization and Optimization (P&O) Study is a long-term effort focused on developing, evaluating, and implementing sustainable strategies to manage and reduce salt accumulation throughout the Central Valley. Elevated salt concentrations can degrade water quality, reduce agricultural productivity, impact drinking water supplies, and affect ecosystems and wildlife habitat. The consequences are already significant: approximately 250,000 acres of farmland have been removed from production due to salinity, and more than 1.5 million acres have been identified as salinity impaired. Without effective management, the economic impacts of salt accumulation in the Central Valley could exceed $3 billion annually.
