PUB00068 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

,.'~ -.::'...L- ~ This combined with overdeveloPl1lent in the use of water for irrigation caused a serious reduction in pressure. The area of. flowing wells grew smaller ~nd smaller, pumping lifts increased, and the situation showed all the ,j;igns of continuing deterioration. In the period between 1904 and 1926 .the artesian head declined about 200 feet in one area. Invoking control legislation together with a.well plugging program has decreased the rate of decline to an .almost stabilized condition. Iilost artesian areas have either suffered very serious loss of pressure or have become of small value. . Passing now from artesian to the free water table type let us examine the occurrence of that kind 'of ground water in the state. Practically all the important bodies of ground water are east of the Continental Divide. Beginning ,with the South Platte, from well above Denver to the State line there is a continuous bed of saturated gravel. It lies on shale or sandstone and is from a few feet to nearly 200 feet thick. It is thickest in the vicinity of Fort Morgan. Irrigation wells are scattered throughout its length in a rather narrow belt. The tributaries also contain important water-bearing gravels. The principal ones are the Poudre, Big Thompson, Lone Tree, Box Elder, Kiowa, Bijou and Beaver. One important area, not apparent as a tributary, is Prospect Valley. Here in .an old buried stream channel there are about 125 irriga- tion wells providing most of the water for 14,000 acres. . Along Fountain Creek there are pumping plants rather thinly scattered from Colorado bprings to Pueblo. Development is extensive from Pueblo to LaJunta along the Arkansas and continues to a lesser extent to the State line. Small developments occur in Black Squirrel Creek, Big Sandy above Hugo, Rush Creek, Steels Fork and Horse Creek. In the areas I have just mentioned, the water-bearing gravels have been laid down rather recently, geologically, by stream action and water tables exist at modest depths. There is a big scope of country in the eastern part of the State drained by the Republican River and its tributaries. It is covered by a formation known geologically as late Tertiary or Ogallala to a depth of several hundred feet. It consists of strata of r.lay, limestone conglomerate, sand and gravel. Some good wells have been obtained in this formation but ordinarily the water table is in excess of lCO feet below the surface. The stream valleys such as the Frenchman, Arikaree and Republican contain recent gravels with a water table at very moderate depths. Of the approximately 150 wells in this region 30 or 40 are entirely in the Ogallala formation. Although this is a relatively small number of wells judged by the concentration in other areas, it must be remembered that these are wells put down mostly in the last 8 or 10 years. . The rate of growth of irrigation well dcvdq:ffient in this ve.Eey exceeds that of all others. I first became acquainted here in 1928. At that time, to my best knowledge, there was but. one pumping plant on an irrigation well in the valley. This plant, 6 miles south of Alamosa, belonged to ,T. J. Schecter who may be in the audience. l:1!hile I was here a crops tour had been arranged by A. J. Hamman and ;'.Jr. Schecter was agree- able to including a demonstration of his plant as part of the tour. I set .