| Show OCR WELLS the flocy should be by law to preveat waste tho valleys of utah possess a subsurface supply of pure water which is reached by driven wells at depths of from one to two hundred feet anything worse than hard clay is rarely found in driving the pipes thusa a convenient stream of flowing water is within the reach of tho humblest farmer it is the abuse of this great blessing to which I 1 desire to call the attention of the people of utah with a view to securing immediate legislation to remedy the evil these wells with but few exceptions are allowed to flow to their full capacity and tho water is rarely utilized but on the contrary is often transformed into a nuisance about homes finding its way to depressions on the farm or roadside and becoming a malaria breeding stagnant pool or a useless feeder to some stream from which it cannot be rescued for irrigation purposes 1 believe it to be within the scope of legislation to compel well owners for the general good to apply reducers to their wells to cut down the flow to reasonable streams say to inch diameter the idea so prevalent that this would impair the quality of the water and ultimately injure the well is not grounded in experience the wells at the hanauer smelter are either thus reduced or the entire flow is tanked which is equivalent to an entire stoppage of flow these wells have not been injured by the process in nearly two years their flow has been diminished in common with all wells by the drainage of the great subterranean reservoirs but the very gradual nature of this reduction of capacity together with the freedom of the water from sand indicates that it is its reduced head and not local obstruction which causes it terminal nat ing as they do in gravel or coarse sand free from organic matter no tenable theory of injury to the well from reduction or stoppage of flow can be deduced when we think that of these wells with an average flow of thirty gallons per minute yield in the aggregate a stream that will fill a 36 inch pipe and flow 1310 13 10 feet per second we behold the great waste of water that is going on in bitah I 1 believe salt lake valley alone to contain this number of flowing wells the great states east of us are about to regulate the preservation of natural gas and prevent its waste by law in this basin is a greater blessing than gas is there both are capable of exhaustion by the same means I 1 invite opinions horn our lawyers upon the feasibility of legislation and if practicable urge a called session of the legislature legis latura to check a great wrong B H telirose TEE irosE 5 1889 |
