Along with drought there are also concerns about water quality which has all kinds of weird units that area actually convertible. Here's a little guide for the principle water quality components and their conversions.
Water Terminology
Common ions in water: calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), sodium (Na1+)
sulfate (SO42-), chloride (Cl-), carbonate (CO32-), bicarbonate (HCO3-), boron (H3BO3)
Measured as parts per million (ppm) or milligrams per liter (mg/l), which are interchangeable , or milliequivalents per liter (meq/l). A milliequivalent is the ppm of that ion divided by its atomic weight per charge.
Example: Ca2+ with atomic weight of 40 and a solution concentration of possibly 200 ppm. Ca2+ has two charges per atom, so it has a weight of 20 per charge. 200 ppm divided by 20 = 10 meq of calcium for a liter of water.
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS): measure of total salts in solution in ppm or mg/L
Electrical Conductivity (EC): similar to TDS but analyzed differently.
Units: deciSiemens/meter(dS/m)=millimhos/centimeter (mmhos/cm)=
1000 micromhos/cm (umhos/cm).
ConversionTDSEC: 640 ppm=1 dS/m= 1 mmhos/cm=1000 umhos/cm
Hardness: measure of calcium and magnesium in water expressed as ppm CaCO3
pH: measure of how acid or base the solution
Alkalinity: measure of the amount of carbonate and bicarbonate controlling the pH, expressed as ppm CaCO3.
Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR): describes the relative sodium hazard of water
SAR= (Na)/((Ca+Mg)/2)1/2, all units in meq/l
1.5 feet of water with EC of 1.6 adds 10,000 # of salt per acre
and that same water with 20 mg/l of nutrient will supply 80# of that nutrient/acre
Sea water has ~ 50 dS/m, 20,000 ppm Cl, 10,000 ppm
Irrigation water WATCH OUT- 1,000 ppm TDS, 100 ppm Na/Cl, 1 ppm B
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