OCR Text |
Show The Voice of The People St. George, Utah, 7-16-34 Editor Washington News. St. George, Utah. Dear M.r. Editor: I The secerity of the drouth is being felt more and more. Water Wa-ter sources are ceasing to flow and our homes, gardens and farms are facing a terrible shortage. short-age. In our city the fire haz-zards haz-zards are growing worse each day for two reasons: Vegetation and and other combustable materials mat-erials are so dry they are nothing less than tinder boxes and the shortage of water to control fires is daily growing worse. While 7 believe every citizen is aware of jthis, yet the. question arises in my mind, what are we going to do about it. Since I am a student of geology and especially the geology of underground wa- j ter I am directly interested in these questions and as a result of this interest, I spent Saturday and Sunday making a casual 1 survey of the Cottonwood water j system north from the Ice House ' (Continued on page Ave) "voice of people (Continued from page one) and feel that the citizens may be interested in my findings. The canal as far as my observations obser-vations could determine is in very excellent condition; possibly the best in its entire history. At the canal intake I estimate estim-ate that there is no more than 1 and 13 cubic second feet of water. And while I did not measure the water I feel certain cer-tain that the estimate is conservative. con-servative. I followed the stream to its source and failed to discover any appreciable loss between the spring and the intake of the canal. can-al. On the contrary I was caused caus-ed to feel that there is more water entering the canal than could be accounted for because of the water sources being hidden. hid-den. I failed to see where great quantities of water are lost either eith-er through evaporation or seepage. seep-age. The channel is clean and rather direct and very steep and the water runs in shade much of the time. There are districts where the water fails to come to the surface and seems to be following through tubes or natural nat-ural courses formed by the large boulders which have been eroded into the canyon. I was unable to establish any losses because of this condition. I have been requested to make a statement concerning the feas-ability feas-ability of a power plant in this section. I must decline as such is out of my field, but I do not hesitate to say that I do not see how a power plant could be maintained on a stream at the present level that the Cottonwood Cotton-wood now is. Before leaving the subject of quantity of water I wish to express ex-press my sincerest appreciations to the St. George citizens for the gallent struggle they have made in the attempt to supply the city with water. And in my opinion had the open canal system sys-tem been maintained there would not be a drop of water entering St. George at this time. Saturday evening the water at the ice house was clear to look at but filthy to the taste. On following the canal loose cattle are to be found wading the stream every foot of the way. The drouth has restricted the grazing to the wet or damp spots and these cattle graze the ditch banks by wading. From the intake to the springs I counted forty-one cows. The count was easy since these cattle seek the green and the shade and water and as a result their off fall is either deposited directly into the stream or within a few feet of the bank where every breeze or rain brings into the stream the filth that has been accumulating. accumu-lating. I found the range of grazing to extend the entire length of the stream. I was surprised sur-prised to find that nothing seems impossible to these stock since they have entered every nook and corner of the district. I found them in places where it seemed impossible for even a man to get. From these conditions condi-tions and from some of the brands I recognized I concluded that many of these cattle had their early training in the starve-to-death pastures of the St. George fields. I walked from the Middle Fork (only source of water at the present) pre-sent) west to the West Fork. Here I found a stream not reaching reach-ing the canal but sinking or evaporating. evap-orating. Until recently this stream was large enough so that a small portion of it entered the canal in the early morning hours. Here I counted thirty cows standing stand-ing or wading in this stream. The stream was running about seven gallons per minute. (Estimated) (Es-timated) There are few if any water holes where the cattle can easily obtain a drink and as a result they spend most of their time wading up the streeam endeavoring en-deavoring to quench their thirst. This herd of cattle seem to have the same cultural background as those above mentioned. Where the stream becomes smaller the filth eonsentration increases in proportion. Like the other district, dis-trict, this section is badly over-, grazed. I failed to find one bunch of grass or other edible weed during my investigation. Our water-shed and our water's head is in a most deplorable condition. con-dition. The water supply indicates that it has suffered a decrease of about one half during the past month. At the present rate of decrease the- city will be dry within sixty days. As the amount of decreases the degree of filth increases. There is every evidence evi-dence that the City of St. George have done their part to maintain main-tain a supply of cullenary water. They have established a legal writ to the water's source; They have built canals and pipe lines nd installed purifing plants and et it seems that they are compiled com-piled to take further action to rotect themselves. Just what .ights have we? Is it possible that we must appeal to the Forestry For-estry Department or will our rights be respected. Will we get action in twenty-four hours or must we wait for a court ruling? rul-ing? Things have gone far enough; Let us hope we are not compelled to fall to the use of the long rifle. Respectfully submitted, R. A. Morris, Jr. |