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Show OCCURRENCE OP UNDERGROUND WATER. 43 the area. The Bureau of Soils of the United States Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Utah Experiment Station, is at present engaged in a demonstration of the feasibility of reclaiming this land on a farm 3 miles west of Salt Lake City. But by no means all of the soils in this lowland area contain excessive amounts of alkali, o especially along Jordan River and adjacent to the border between the lowland and highland areas there are thriving settlements. The map and list of wells show general conditions. The wells are grouped along the margins of the area, and few are located in the interior. In general they are 2 inches in diameter, but they vary in depth greatly. Although flows are obtained locally at only 30 feet below the surface, commonly they are not encountered above 150 feet. Perhaps the average well is between 200 and 300 feet in depth. It is a striking fact that flows may be obtained throughout the entire area at similar, but not at regular depths, indicating only a slight inclination of the water- bearing horizons and their lenticular character. The flows are usually small, averaging perhaps under 5 gallons a minute, though there are a number of 15- gallon flows. The supply generally is reported rather constant, except that the shallower wells are subject to seasonal variation. The pressure obtained, too, generally is small, being only enough to- cause the water to rise either barely to the surface or a few feet above. In general th# pressure and the flow are reported to increase with the depth but measurements are not available. Both the flow and the pressure are considerable in the deep Rudy well, sec. 5, T. 1 N., R. 1 W. The conditions here noted apply mostly to the areas contiguous to the eastern and southern borders of the lowland west of Jordan River. Little information is available concerning the rest of this area ( see list of wells pp. 59- 75.) The few wells near Great Salt Lake were sunk to unusual depths before flowing water was obtained, this being apparently due to the greater development of clay in that region, though no complete logs have been kept. The well at the Inland Crystal Salt Company's works, in which, at a depth of 560 feet, water was struck which rises about 9 feet above the surface and flows about 10 gallons a minute, is reported 720 feet deep. Underground water in the Pleistocene deposits near the lake contains considerable salt. EAST OF JORDAN RIVER. East of Jordan River the occurrence of underground water will be described under the following heads: Salt Lake City, lowland area south of Salt Lake City, and upland area south of Salt Lake City. SALT LAKE CITY. Salt Lake City is built principally on the floor of the main valley, but its outskirts extend northward on the old delta of City Creek and eastward on the benches at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. Adjacent to the highlands the underlying deposits are very irregular in composition and distribution, consisting of sand and gravel with intercalated streaks of clay. But toward the valley proper the conditions become more regular and the prevailing clay is interbedded with sand and gravel, though from the records obtained no definite sequence appears to be applicable to any considerable area. In the lower part of the city marshy areas occur, but conditions there have been much improved since the early days of settlement. Formerly the lower channels of City, Red Butte, Emigration, and Parleys creeks were ill defined and at high- water stage the part of the city adjacent to Jordan River was a great slough. But by erecting embankments, by confining the creeks to definite channels, and by draining the western part of the city much of the swampy land has been reclaimed. Shallow ground water, except on the benches, generally lies within 10 feet of the surface. The line separating ' flowing and nonflowing wells skirts the lower benches, so that in the larger part of the area occupied by the city artesian wells affe obtained. Flows are found a Soil survey in Salt Lake Valley: Bull. U. S. Dept. Agric No. 64, 1900. Reclamation of Alkali ands: Fifth Kept. Bureau of Soils, 1903, p. 1144. |