California Agriculture

In response to Napa Sanitation District's interest in expanding its delivery of recycled water to vineyards for irrigation, we conducted a feasibility study to assess the suitability of the water for this use. We adopted two approaches: comparing the water quality characteristics of the recycled water with those of other local sources of irrigation water, and evaluating soil samples from a vineyard that was irrigated for 8 years with the recycled water. Results indicate that the quality of the recycled water is suitable for irrigation, and also that long-term accumulation of salts and toxic ions have not occurred in the vineyards studied and are unlikely to occur. Nutrients in the recycled water may be beneficial to vineyards, though the levels of nitrogen may need to be reduced by planting cover crops in some vineyards.