Disposal of saline agricultural drainage water is a significant problem for irrigated agriculture; one proposal for reducing the drainage water volume is to recycle drainage water on salt tolerant crops until the volume has been reduced sufficiently to enable evaporation from small on-farm ponds.  Part of this concept will require crop water reuse from shallow groundwater, and data is needed to quantify the potential use by alternative crops.  A column lysimeter study was initiated to determine the potential crop water use from shallow groundwater by alfalfa as a function of groundwater quality and depth to groundwater.  By using the HYDRUS 1-D model we were able to examine the details of the column experiments and assess changes in profile salinity caused by shallow groundwater uptake by alfalfa roots. The results demonstrated that up to 50% of the alfalfa crop water use can be met from shallow groundwater with an electrical conductivity less than 4 dS/m, and that the potential crop water use from deeper ground water increased over the four year study. The columns with high saline shallow groundwater experienced increased salinity in the soil profile with time, which resulted in reduced crop water use from shallow groundwater.