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Show MILFORD VALLEY PUMPING DISTRICTC In 1919 there was an appropria-l tion by the Utah State Legislature ; made to experiment on various 1 ways to develop water for irriga-1 tion from wells. The idea was to test different districts to see if there was a formation for-mation underground that would) produce a sufficient flow of water i for irrigation and also to experi-l ment in the kind of wens and well-casings well-casings that would get the maximum maxi-mum flow of water from the different dif-ferent formations that were tested There had been several attempts to get a pumping stream from makeshift wells in the Milford pumping district before this time. These had given enough showing of water to indicate that there was a good formation for underground water development. The state shipped a new well rig to Milford and started a crew to work on the Berkhermio farm three miles south of Milford. Two years earlier, Mr. Berkhermio had started to clear his land, and a centrifugal pump powered -by an electric motor had been installed He had built his own power line from Milford, and was irrigating a small acreage of alfalfa and sugar beets. Neither was successful, however, how-ever, as the perforations in the well casing clogged up so badly in the middle of the summrr that his pump did not throw enough water to irrigate the land, and his crops were a failure. The well crew first was put to work sinking a 5-foot cement curbing curb-ing with perforations, but this was finally abandoned. A wooden frame strainer then was tried, but this, too, did not prove successful. Next a galvanized curbing with the perforations pinched from the inside in-side out, was set in the ground with a gravel pack, in the gravel and sand strata. This proved successful, success-ful, and has been used since in thin district. . It was found that there was enough formation averaging 60 to 70 feet to produce 400 gallons per minute, which was a very good Irrigation Ir-rigation stream. This made an Inexpensive In-expensive water right, and the following fol-lowing year, 1920, there were IB wells drilled in the district, and the Telluride Power Company put in a power line seven miles down through the middle of the district. Every well Indicated a new farm and each farm usually a family, so the district built up quickly and In a few years there were several families in the district, living off crops irrigated by water pumped from the ground. |