The San Joaquin Valley of California is one of the premier irrigated areas in the world.  It is blessed with abundant sunshine, a long growing season, fertile soils and a high quality water supply.  However, the lack of suitable drainage outlets and the presence of toxic elements and salinity in the drainage water create a situation that threatens to reduce the sustainability of this irrigated area.  It is a well established fact that drainage is a necessary complement to sustain irrigated agriculture in arid and semiarid areas.  However, the traditional methods of discharging saline drainage water into surface water supplies are no longer acceptable due to environmental concerns.  A 5-year study of irrigation and drainage water management in the San Joaquin Valley identified management practices, both for irrigation and drainage systems that will lead to reducing the total drainage volume for disposal.  There is still a need to develop on-farm farm systems for drainage disposal because of the restrictions for disposal in the San Joaquin River.  This talk will discuss changes in irrigation system type and irrigation management that have been implemented to provide source control, i.e. total reduction of deep percolation to alleviate the drainage water disposal problem.  Active management of subsurface drainage systems and alternative designs for subsurface drainage systems will be discussed. On farm disposal will also be discussed.