Research by the Department of Water has found deep drains can be effective in helping counter salinity on farms but warn findings from the department’s engineering evaluation initiative reveal farmers need to be clear about what they want to achieve with drainage.

Drains might not be effective in all cases, downstream impacts need to be considered and drains might be too costly an option.

The research also found there could be problems with acid groundwater produced by drains in some areas and there are environmental risks associated with disposing of water from most drains.

The research is part of the department’s investigations into the use of engineering methods to counter salinity in the Wheatbelt and was funded by the State and Federal Governments.

Thirteen projects have investigated deep drainage, groundwater pumping and farm scale evaporation basins to help farmers better manage salinity at Dumbleyung, Tammin, Bodallin, Pithara, Morawa and Beacon.

Department of Water director of resource management John Ruprecht said several thousand kilometres of deep and shallow drains have been constructed in the Wheatbelt in recent years.

“But until now no-one had scientifically looked at how effective they are, what precautions should be taken and the dangers involved in simply moving salty water from a salinity affected farm further downstream or into a neighbour’s land,” he said.

“This sort of salinity research and development is important to ensure property owners can decide how best to spend their money and time to fix salinity on their land, without creating potentially worse problems downstream.”