Laserfiche WebLink
<br />1718 <br /> <br />What I want to say here is that I <br />agree with Mr. Oliver that the use of the <br />ground water for purely domestic purposes <br />is probably not in its proper position as <br />it is tied with irrigation wells and the <br />withdrawal of water for that purpose. There <br />are certain exemptions in the act whereby <br />we do not charge them fees and this and that, <br />but I do not see a particular purpose being <br />served by including the domestic wells under <br />that act, with the exception of perhaps <br />getting a general catalog on how many wells <br />there are overall. <br /> <br />I would further like to point out in <br />connection with Mr. Oliver's statement <br />relative to sanitary considerations, that <br />we have and are now cooperating witn the <br />Department of Health, and with the Oil and <br />Gas Commission, in preventing ,so far as we <br />are able to do, the pollution of potable <br />ground water supplies. We have run headlong <br />into that proposition, as you may well recall, <br />with the drilling of deep wells in the San <br />Luis Valley under the present oil exploration <br />program. In that valley, which is highly <br />dependent upon ground water for their domestic <br />supply, the people made a demand upon our <br />office, that,w:e do something to preclude the <br />pollution of the potable ground water strata <br />by those that are known to be unpotable. We <br />immediately saw that we lacked any authority .. <br />under this act".to do that. We then joined <br />together with the Department of Health and <br />with the Gas and Oil Commission, who has <br />quite stringent supervisory powers over gas <br />and oil exploration, to accomplish what the <br />people'the~e wanted done. In other words, <br />to make them set the surface casings deep <br />enough to preclude the pollution of the <br />upper strata, in general, to the domestic <br />users. Those domestic wells in the San Luis <br />Valley are generally from 125 to 300 or 400 <br />feet deep. A few of the towns, such as <br />Alamosa, have some that go down 1500 or 1800 <br />feet. <br /> <br />That now has been our action and what <br />we have had to do to get some of these <br />things, that look comparatively simple, done. <br />We have, I will say, excellent cooperation <br />by the oil and gas exploration companies. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />I <br />