OCR Text |
Show Urges Precautions Against Drouth In most irrigated sections of the state the rainfall for the summer sum-mer and fall of 1935 has been below be-low normal and even below that of l)34, resulting in a very dry and baked soil condition and a general lowering of the ground water table and unless conditions change for the better and there be an unusual un-usual amount of rainfall within the next three or four months, a repetition of the drouth of 1934 appears to be inevitable, according accord-ing to T. II. Humpherys, state engineer, en-gineer, in a circular letter recently recent-ly sent out to all water commis-sioneers. commis-sioneers. They are asked to warn the water users of tho impending danger and to co-operate with and urge them to begin at once on a' systematic program of conservation: conserva-tion: 1. Divert all water not now used for making up storage or otherwise beneficially used, for the irrigation of the ground to facilitate fall plowing and making pasturage. 2. Close, where practical and where spillway capacities are adequate, ade-quate, the gates of reservoirs and thus provide all possible storage. . 3. Divert, at the mouth of the canyon onto adjoining gravelly foothills, small mountain streams, to supplement the undergTound water supply. 4. Close by plug, cap or valve, all artesian wells not now used for culinary and stockwatering purposes. pur-poses. Particular attention is directed to the last item above referred to, viz: that of closing artesian wells which are wasting. There are, from best information at hand, about 35,000 'wells in the state of Utah, many of which are running wild and wasting. From this source alone we ;are wasting in the state of Utah, from November 1 to April 1 in each and every year, at least 150,000 acre feet, or enough to adequately irrigate for an entire year 50,000 acres. an area equivalent to that which is irrigated in any year from the Utah lake and Jordan river. Attention is also directed to the fact that the state engineer, under authority given him by Section 100-5-11, Chapter 105 of the Session Ses-sion Laws of Utah, 1935, has, by publication in three principal papers of the state, directed that all wells not now beneficially used be closed from November 1 to April 1. Failure to comply with the provisions of this order within ten days after the publication of said order is by law a misdemeanor misde-meanor and, in addition to such punishment, the state engineer may forbid the use of water from such wells not closed. |