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W.B. Nelson

Publications and source records attributed to W.B. Nelson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Pumping from wells on the floor of the Sevier Desert, Utah

Data collected at the Topaz Relocation Center provide an excellent record of the development and subsequent disappearance of a cone of depression caused by pumping . This Center occupied temporarily an area of natural ground‐water discharge on the floor of the Sevier Desert in west‐central Utah . Water for a population of 6500 was pumped from artesian wells which tapped aquifers of sand. Overlying these sand beds are lake‐bed sediments too impermeable to yield water to wells , but apparently permeable enough to permit slow upward movement of water from the artesian aquifers. The water table is near the surface, and there is natural discharge by evapotranspiration, accumulation of “alkali” in the soil, and a need for drainage of irrigated lands. The wells were abandoned when the Relocation Center was closed, apparently because these handicaps were so great that the ground water could not be used profitably for irrigation.

Utah

Progress report on selected ground-water basins in Utah

This technical publication consists essentially of the interpretation of data collected in connection with a detailed inventory of ground-water pumpage and water-level trends in four irrigation districts in southern Utah. Much of this information was assembled in a preliminary report entitled "Inventory of ground-water pumpage in three irrigation districts in southern Utah," by H. A. Waite and others, and was used by the State Engineer in a court hearing in Parowan in February 1954.

Utah

Ground water in the Escalante Valley, Beaver, Iron, and Washington Counties, Utah

Escalante Valley in southwestern Utah is one of the largest and most important ground-water areas of the State, with 1,300 square miles of arid land and an additional 1,500 square miles in its tributary drainage basin. Ground water is obtained from gravel and sand beds in the unconsolidated valley fill. In 1950 more irrigation wells were pumped than in any other basin of Utah, and their total pumpage exceeded 80,000 acre-feet. Farming is done chiefly in the Beryl-Enterprise district at the south (upper) end of the valley, where it depends almost entirely upon ground water, and in the Milford and Minersville districts in the northeast-central part of the valley. This progress report concerns chiefly the Beryl-Enterprise and Milford districts.

Utah

Ground water in the East Shore area, Utah. Part I. Bountiful District, Davis County

The Bountiful district in Davis County, Utah, less than 10 miles from the heart of Salt Lake City, is rapidly becoming an integral part of the metropolitan area of Salt Lake City. It cannot achieve the development that its location merits unless the present water supplies are increased. The district is a fertile agricultural area favorably situated between the largest cities in the intermountain area and athwart the major routes of transportation and communication, but development of its residential, industrial, and agricultural potentialities will be restricted until existing water resources are supplemented by importation from other drainage basins that now have surplus water supplies. This conclusion is reached in the accompanying report by the Geological Survey, prepared in cooperation with the Utah State Engineer and the Davis County Water Users Association, and based on a 2-year investigation of the existing water supplies

Utah