OCR Text |
Show 55 recharge. However, most of the water stored in the northern part of the valley is saline. In the southern part of Skull Valley, about one million acre- feet of water of chemical quality suitable for irrigation and domestic use might be recovered ( Hood and Waddell, 1968). Sink Valley Area Groundwater The Sink Valley area includes Sink Valley proper, an unnamed valley to the north and mud flats to the east. The eastern border of the area is formed by the shores of Great Salt Lake, including the bulk of the Lakeside Mountains in the Sink Valley area. The southeastern border is formed by the northern end of the Cedar Mountains; the southern border of the area is a drainage divide south of Highway 1- 80; the western border of the area is formed by the Grassy Mountains; and the northwestern border of the area is in the Great Salt Lake Desert. Groundwater within Sink Valley proper and in the unnamed northern valley and the eastern mud flats occurs under both water- table and artesian conditions ( Price and Bolke, 1972). Most wells in all three parts of the area tap unconfined aquifers but some tap confined aquifers. Discharge to the Great Salt Lake- About 1,000 acre- feet of water is estimated to move annually out of Sink Valley into the northern unnamed valley ( Price and Bolke, 1970). Most of this groundwater is discharged within the northern valley by pumpage or evapotranspiration, but a small quantity of water may move northwestward into the Great Salt Lake Desert. Most of the annual recharge to the mud flats in the eastern part of the Sink Valley area is consumed by evapotranspiration. The volume of water discharged by subsurface seepage to the Lake is not known, but is |