Show underground WATER IN UTAH A study has recently been made of the underground waters in the most populous and flourishing part of the state of utah this area includes the valleys of utah lake and jordan river where salt lake city and provo the first and third cities in the state and many other thriving settlements are located agriculture is the main industry of the people in this region although many of them find employment in the several smelters shelters sm elters at bingham junction and murray water for irrigation is supplied by mountain streams and farming is successfully cess fully pursued the practice 6 of irrigation was begun by the mormon pioneers in 1847 and has been discussed in several publications licati ons little attention however has been paid to the underground water resources and the report on that subject just published by mr G B richardson of the united states geological survey should therefore be very acceptable to those interested in this region before discussing the underground water conditions of this area mr richardson describes its topography and drainage ra inage its geology climate and nine photographic plates and five diagrams serve to illustrate his text the drainage area of utah lake and jordan river covers approximately square miles of which 2600 are tributary to utah lake and to tho the jordon north of the traverse mountains the underground water supply in the valleys of utah lake and jordan river is maintained by the snow and rain that fall on their drainage areas the resources distribution quality and recovery of these waters are considered most important is the chapter chapter of suggestions with which this part of the report closes it is stated that a higher degree of efficiency fici ency in the use of the water resources of the valleys might be maintained storm waters might be conserved not only in large impounding reservoirs but in small ones built at many localities in the mountains storm waters might also be utilized by diverting them on the uplands and permitting them to spread over a large area instead of allowing the runoff run off to escape rapidly in the natural channels storm discharge might be lessened by planting trees and by protecting the watersheds from fire lumbering and grazing more efficient conduits should replace crudely constructed ditches loss occurs by allowing artesian wells to flow when the water is not needed and the wells should therefore be capped or the water collected in reservoirs water for the uplands should be drawn from the creeks and the water of wells either flowing or pumped be used in developing the lowlands seepage from the greater use of creek water on the upland would increase the availably available avail abl underground supply in the lowlands th thai upland water supply might also be increase increased i by the development of springs by tunneling tu junelin into the mountains and possibly by the co coi st ruction of subsurface dams and infiltration galleries at favorable localities the occurrences of underground water west of jordan river east of jordan river and in utah lake valley are considered I 1 ial detail by mr richardson the report close closer with a description of the method by chic wells are measured and a list of typical w nellt ell in this region persons desirous of hay havin in a copy of this useful report should male make a ap to the director of the geologic geological survey washington D C for water supply and irrigation paper no |