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Show 3 8 UNDERGROUND WATER IN VALLEYS OF UTAH. SUGGESTIONS. It is evident that in general a high degree of efficiency in the use of the water resources of the valleys of Utah Lake and Jordan River is not maintained. Conditions can be greatly benefited by preventing waste whenever possible. Most prominent in this connection is the conservation of storm waters. Besides the construction of large impounding reservoirs small ones can profitably be built at many localities within the mountains. Also to a certain extent storm waters can be utilized by diverting them on the uplands and permitting them to spread over a larger area instead of allowing the run- off to escape rapidly in the natural channels. The effect would be an appreciable increase of the downstream seepage and of the replenishment of the underground store. Moreover, storm discharge may be lessened by planting trees and by protecting the watershed from fire, lumbering, and grazing, thereby promoting retention of the water by absorption and the increase of seepage runoff long after the storms are over. Another important loss of water occurs because of faulty methods of transportation for use in irrigation. As the need of economy increases more efficient conduits will replace crudely constructed ditches. Water thus saved, however, proportionally diminishes the replenishment of the underground store. Loss also occurs by allowing artesian wells to flow when the water is not needed. Either the wells should be capped or the flow at least be partly checked when water is not used, or it should be collected in reservoirs. The abundance of water in the lowlands and a dearth of it in the uplands, where the soil is generally fertile, free from alkali, and well adapted to the growth of fruit, suggest that a more efficient application of the available water supply should be practiced. Because of tho scarcity of the underground supply on the uplands and the possibility of distributing creek water there by high- level canals, and since there is not enough water in the creeks to directly serve both the uplands and lowlands, it would appear that steps should be taken to increase the upland supply from the creeks and to use wells, either flowing or pumped, in developing the lowlands. The popularity of pumping plants in irrigation elsewhere, the proximity of underground water to the surface in the lowlands, and the availability of electric power that can be developed in the adjacent canyons are facts favorable to the proposed change. Moreover, seepage from the greater use of creek water on the uplands will increase the available underground supply in the lowlands. The upland water supply may also be increased by the development of springs, by tunneling into the mountains, and possibly by the construction of subsurface dams and infiltration galleries at favorable localities. More attention should be given to developing and preserving a pure water supply for domestic purposes. Surface streams should be protected from pollution, and care should be taken to reduce to a minimum the contamination of water in wells by using modern methods in the disposal of household refuse. The common location of the towns, near the base of the mountains, where sufficient amounts of pure water are generally available either from creeks or springs renders the problem of public water supply relatively simple; yet it is a remarkable fact that only a few towns utilize their opportunities. OCCURRENCE OP UNDERGROUND WATER. WEST OF JORDAN RIVER. DIVISIONS OF AREA. The area west of Jordan River within the region covered by this report is naturally divided into two parts. One is the lowland which extends from Great Salt Lake eastward to Jordan River and thence continues in a narrow belt southward, adjacent to the river; the other is the upland which, from the southern and western border of the lowland, extends with increasing elevation to the base of the Oquirrh Mountains. No sharp line of division can be drawn between these areas, for they grade into each other, yet on the whole they are distinct. The distribution of underground water in the two areas also is distinct, a convenient line of separation being that which marks the boundary between flowing and |
