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Show Water Problems For Tropic's New Well TROPIC - "Even geologists are . : scratching their heads," said Engineer Engi-neer Phylip Leslie of Tropic's latest development in their long standing culinary water problems. And at least one Tropic resident has asked if the small community might be sitting on a volcano. Tropic's expert, retired former state geologist Bryce Montgomery hired as the town's consultant, is currently reviewing all prior information infor-mation and digging into new data sent by Leslie in an effort to discover dis-cover the solution to three new problems: water from the town's newly drilled 2,450-ft well has tested high in arsenic, iron and temperature, coming in at an amazingly amaz-ingly high 96 degrees Fahrenheit compared with the usual 40 degrees.. de-grees.. Interestingly, arsenic, iron and higher water temperatures are all generally associated with volcanic terrain. Experts suspect that somewhere in the area is an intrusion intru-sion of igneous, or volcanic rock from which the arsenic is coming. There is evidence of volcanic action west of Tropic in the Red Canyon area and farther west between U.S. 89 and Cedar City. Also puzzling the experts is that water samples from the town's eight-inch test well had no such problems, testing well within the state's criteria for drinking water. Then, when the hole was enlarged en-larged to 12 inches and lined and its cement casing poured into place, the water that was pumped up for testing on May 7 came through with the problem characteristics that have kept the well from being put into use to relieve the small community's water woes that date back to early summer 1990. A seven-year stretch of drought had diminished the water flow at the town's regular springs from close to 200 gallons a minute down to less than 30 for the 350 people who live there. The drillers, Lang Exploratory Well Drilling, Salt Lake City, had hit water with their test well at 2,165 feet on Nov. 31, 1990 and continued another 290 feet into the Navajo sandstone strata. Leslie said they are a "long way from a decision" on what to do next, since all data is being re-See re-See Tropic Water Page 3A Tropic Water Problems Continue From Page 1 viewed by experts throughout the state and he himself s working on the problem on an almost daily basis. ba-sis. He said the water's arsenic level is .362 parts per million as opposed to the state's maximum safe level of .05 ppm. The iron level is 9.14 ppm compared with the safe level of .30 ppm. Leslie said that the iron level can be treated with chlorination and filtering, filter-ing, such as with nearby Hen-rieville's Hen-rieville's water, but that the arsenic is more difficult and expensive to treat. He said he feels the three problems are all related to an isolated iso-lated area which, when sealed off, will solve all three. A video camera was sent down the shaft, examining the condition all the way from top to bottom, and the resulting film is being analyzed. He said it showed no cracks or leaks in the casing, and that the solid sandstone appeared normal, with only the fractures normally to be expected. Before the camera was sent down, the town's fire hose pumped water down the well for 24 hours to clear the standing water and allow fresh water to fill the well to its usual depth of 900 feet. Leslie said the town will probably proba-bly get between 25-300 gallons a minute from the well as opposed to the 450 they had originally hoped for. Engineers had anticipated that he well would be ready by now to begin be-gin pumping into the town's culinary culi-nary system, but because of the delay, de-lay, they are proceeding full speed ahead on the design for developing Spring Creek's springs. They are hopeful that Spring Creek water can be exchanged for the less potable water at the town's old springs which nearby surface water has sometimes polluted . In the meantime, the town of Cannonville has entered an official protest to the proposed development of the springs at Spring Creek, requesting re-questing further clarification of Tropic's water rights and noting that because its own water sources are nearly dried up "at their lowest low" assurance of protection of downstream waters must be guaranteed. guaran-teed. Meanwhile, Tropic Mayor Bob Bradley said that the town's water is still from the old springs and the town is still under a boil order issued is-sued by the state's health department. depart-ment. He added that the last six tests of the culinary water have met the state's criteria for safe drinking water. |