OCR Text |
Show stance, cannot be guaranteed well pressures or flow if such guarantee means retarding or holding back the development of the real potential of the basin. Rights to a certain amount of water can be and must be maintained, but if prior rights prevent the development of a basin, they must be satisfied in such a way that the basin can still be developed. As in oil well operations, it does not seem unreasonable that all water wells within a hydrologic basin might be prorated according to their prior rights and useful needs. If certain wells within the basin need to be deepened in order to fulfill these rights, then the cost might be apportioned equitably among the water users of the basin, rather than being borne entirely by those who are required to adjust their wells in depth. f. Watercourses. In watercourses the surface flow and groundwater ( underflow) are interrelated, so that groundwater may contribute to the flow of the streams or vice versa. If ground water is pumped out of wells, it may be replaced by water from the stream, and thus deplete the flow. However, it is not necessarily true that pumping causes immediate depletion of streamflow; in some localities groundwater can be pumped from storage for long periods, and is not replaced until the stream is at flood stages. Groundwater development thus may impair surface- water rights, but without hydrologic evidence it cannot be assumed to do so. If ground- water development in watercourses is prohibited, the groundwater reservoir remains full, and may contain even more water than under natural conditions if surface water is used for irrigation. The ground- water reservoir is then capable of losing water by non- beneficial evaporation and transpiration, but incapable of storing water during floods. On the other hand, pumping from wells can provide water for beneficial use and also reduce the losses of water by evapotranspiration and flood runoff. Some conflict between holders of surface- water rights and ground- water rights along water courses may be inevitable, but it might be held to a mini- - 19- |