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Show U. S. SURVEY REPORTS ON WELLSJIERE A complete report of the W. N. White experimentation on the wells in Escalante Valley is ready for publication publica-tion and manuscript copies of his data are available now according to a memorandum received by the News yesterday from the Department of Interior. The report is of considerable importance import-ance to the farmers and dairymen of the valley as it contains detailed data on fluctuation of water levels in the wells and is the result of three years intensive study and experimentation here in South Milford. White was brought here in 1926 through the influence of William Peterson, at that time director of the Utah Experimental Station, to make a thorough study of the cause of the decline of water levels in the wells and to determine the factors influencing influenc-ing these declines. He worked under the direction of 0. A. Meinzer, chief of the underground water research department and after three years here he had gathered sufficient data to return re-turn to Washington, D. C. in the fall of 1928 where he has been since compiling com-piling his findings. Report Available . His report is now available in manuscript form at the offices of Prof. William Peterson, State geologist, geolo-gist, Logan, Utah and will be published publish-ed by the Geological Survey later. Its publication will not only be of interest to this locality but to all desert districts where irrigation depends de-pends on well supply. The memorandum from the department depart-ment of interior: Ground-Water Supplies in Desert Regions Contrary to popular opinion, the water levels in wells are seldom stationary sta-tionary but are almost constantly moving slowly up or down. It has been found that these fluctuations are dua to many different causes, and if they are accurately recorded and critically crit-ically studied they give much definite information as to the occurance, movement, and quantity of the water. In almost all parts of the country the water levels decline during the summer, sum-mer, owing chiefly to the heavy though invisible draft made upon the underground reservoirs by. plants. In some wells the water levels decline in the daytime; when the plants are transpiring moisture, and recover during the night, when transpiration is greatly reduced. Fluctuations of the water levels are also due to many other causes, such as changes in atmospheric at-mospheric pressure and the ebbing and flowing of the ocean tides. Continuous Records Recently the Geological Survey, De- partment of the Interior, has obtained continuous records of the daily fluctuations fluc-tuations of the water levels in nearly 100 wells in the Escalante Valley, Utah, by means of automatic water-stage water-stage recorders that were installed over the wells. From these records it was possible to compute the amount of water that is annually withdrawn by the desert vegetation from the great underground reservoir beneath this arid region, and hence to estimate estim-ate the quantity of water that can safely be recovered annually for irrigation ir-rigation or other uses. It is expected ex-pected that the methods developed in this investigation can be applied in many other desert regions where it is of great consequence to determine the quantity of water available. Results for Publication A report on the results of the Escalante Es-calante Valley investigation has been completed by W. N. White and will eventually be published by the Geological Geo-logical Survey. To make the results immediately available, the report has been released to the public in manuscript manu-script form. The complete report can be consulted at the office of the geological Survey in Washington, D. -Y C, and copies of the text, without the ' illustrations, can be consulted at the district office of the Geological Survey, Sur-vey, Federal Building, Salt Lake City, and at the office of Prof. William Peterson, State geologist, Logan, Utah. |