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Show Engineer Hears Protests Against DeWolfe Deep Wells I VALLEY FARMERS FEAR DEPLETION OF WATER; ENGINEER CHARGES WASTE; BLAMES POWER BILLING SYSTEM Mr. John A. Ward, assistant state engineer on underground water, conducted a "protest meeting" in the I. O. O. F. hall Tuesday evening, eve-ning, at which protesters of the DeWolfe well in the Milford Valley were heard. Mr. DeWolfe has been granted a permit to drill two deep wells in South Milford, tapping water sources not now being utilized, in an effort to find sufficient irrigation irriga-tion water to undertake extensive development of Milford Valley farm lands now growing only sage brush. In the main, tile present water users seemed to fear depletion of their present supplies of irrigation water, with Mr. DeWolfe contending contend-ing that his wells in no way interfered inter-fered with surface waters. Mr. Bill Hendrickson, a mining engineer and South Milford resident, resi-dent, stated that the valley was badly fissured, and he doubted that there were any impervious stratas definitely separating the various water levels, and suggested a bond be posted by drillers of the wells, to protect the present water users against material damage to their water supply. Walter Gospill, Ivan McKnight, Walter Cook, Ezra Walker, Carl Goodwin and other farmers spoke at the meeting. It appeared they had no definite objections to development devel-opment of deep water sources, if they wore assured that such development devel-opment would not interfere with present supplies, or if they would ,be allowed to deepen their wells should such procedure be necessary. Another problem raised was that of "souring" of land in the lower portions of the valley, caused by introduction of new, additional sources of water, with consequent flooding of the lands of these farmers. The possibility possibil-ity of this happening was admitted admit-ted by the state engineer. Mr .Ward stated that the state enginer's office is desirous only of helping the people of the state to derive the greatest benefits from their water sources. If water is available for appropriation, he said, it should be appropriated and used to increase production of the valleys. val-leys. He said that with the exception excep-tion of the Borough valley district, the state engineers office had in all cases been able to raise the water level in the wells by proper use and control of available water. Mr. Ward suggested formation of a water user's association for Milford Valley, to work with the state office in proper use, development de-velopment and conservation of the Milford Valley waters. For many years, he said, the state office had jealously protected the shallow well irrigators of Milford Mil-ford Valley. Information gathered by his office showed that the water level has raised 7 feet since 1936, in spite of heavy pumping and "wholesale waste." However, Mr. Ward pointed out, the state engineer's office cannot stand in the way of anyone willing to spend money drilling wells in search of new, untapped sources of water, and he feels there definitely defi-nitely is water in the Milford Valley Val-ley available for appropriation. Regarding the wasting of water in South Milford, Mr. Ward charged a large portion of the responsibility for such waste to Telluride Power Company, citing the company by name and objecting object-ing strenuously to the method of charging farmers for power used for pumping puroses. Nowhere else in the state, the engineer's representative said, is the pumping rate regulated as it is here. In other pumping areas, he pointed out, farmers are charged for the actual power used, while in the Milford Valley the monthly bill is based upon horsepower of the pumps, instead of kilowatts used. If the kilowatt basis were used, he contended, the Milford Valley irrigators would shut their pumps off. when water was not needed, "instead of letting them run, since you have to pay for the juice whether you use it or not, and allowing the water to run off in a ditch." To a statement of Mr. McKnight that upon notifying the power company com-pany that he would be shut down for five days, he received a rebate for the five days, "but lost my five per cent discount, so it cost me money in the end to shut down." Mr. Ward replied that it was necessary neces-sary to waste water in order to save money. Mr. Ward said his office had on several occasions made representations repre-sentations to the Public Service Commission, requesting an order requiring Telluride to change their rate method In this valley, but so far they had been unsue-oessfuL |