BOARD00158

• Board Meeting Date: 12/12/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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began there probably in the late 1800's because it is a parched
gravel layer that is quite well drained off to the west of the La
Plata River. But now it is not dry. It is saturated and it has some
of the best water in that area in it. It is used by several people
who have wells and there is a large spring there called Marvel Springs
that is utilized by the people in this whole area of the country for
their drinking water. They haul it away in trucks to their cisterns.

Back to the Mancos. In this area, which is by pagosa Springs, the
Mancos shale has about 1500 parts dissolved solids in it, but it is
quite soft. The overall chemical quality of water is better than
the water from the Dakota and some other areas. There is some
selenium there.

We are going to move on next year and try to cover most of the rest
of the area, which would include the areas around Gunnison and the
area around Montrose and Delta, and some of the areas in the Paradox
Basin, and along the Dolores River and complete our inventory and our
collection of ground water data. That is what we have accomplished
to date and are planning to do. If there are any questions, I will
try to answer them.

Mr. Sparks: How long will this program take?

Mr. Hampton: This program is supposed to run for three years. We
hope that in three year's time we can actually cover this large area
with enough data so we will be able to make an assessment of what
the ground water resources in the area are.

Mr. Vandemoer: Will these be almost all domestic, fifteen gallon,
smaller type wells? Are you talking about irrigation wells?

Mr. Hampton: I found one irrigation well in this area. It is an old
oil test well that flows freely 365 days a year. It has oil in it.
Gas comes out of it and it has selenium in it, but it makes the grass
green down there and it flows about 100 gallons a minute. They use
it to irrigate a meadow. We are going to sample any and all wells
that we can find. For instance, in the area around Dolores, the City
of Dolores obtains its water supply partly from wells. Aside from
the wells around Dolores and the one irrigation well down in this
area, we have not yet located a large enough yield well to supply
either irrigation or to the city. But we will probably find some as
we continue on through the area.

~. Stapleton: I don't know who to address this question to since
Mr. Kuiper isn't here, but they don't register wells I take it down

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