114 REPORT OF ELLWOOD C. PERISHO, STATE GEOLOGIST 



determined. However it is known that we have beds of Lignite 

 Coal, which may be converted into briquetts. In this form our 

 lignite can be easily shipped and used in every way that the 

 hard coal of the eastern states are now being utilized. When 

 ever cheaper transportation is obtained along the Missouri River, 

 or^ a fuel supply at less cost is accessable, then the inexhaustible 

 beds of Niobrara Chalk, Ft. Benton and Ft. Pierre shales may 

 become the sources of the greatest cement manufacturing plants 

 the country has ever seen. 



South Dakota should have cheaper fuel. The Survey must 

 help in this problem if necessary. 



5. THE ARTESIAN WATER SUPPLY. Too much 

 emphasis cannot be placed upon the importance of our artesian 

 wells. No fact is better known, than that the water is decreasing 

 in many of these wells. If the decrease in pressure is due to the 

 loss of water, this must be caused by one of the following reasons : 

 (i) Drainage into rivers which have cut into the water-bearing 

 stratum. (2) Loss of water at the artesian wells. It seems 

 probably that the very sudden decline in the flow of our wells is 

 due to the loss at the well. This loss may be either through the 

 pipe at the surface or around the pipe below the surface into 

 porus beds. The whole problem of our artesian wells should be 

 carefully studied by our Survey in order that proper precautions 

 may be taken to conserve this great resource. 



If careful investigation shows that the amount of water 

 escaping through the tube at the surface is quantitatively important, 

 laws regulating the size of wells and the flow of water, must be 

 passed and enforced. At present less than 5 per cent, of the 

 water supplied by the artesian wells is used. However, if in- 

 vestigation proves that much more water leaks into porous beds 

 below ground than escapes at the surface, then great efforts will 

 have to be taken to save our artesian well supply, since leaks 

 usually become larger and larger. That there be no hole around 

 the pipe through which water can escape will have to be required 

 by law. At the time of the first piping of new wells, proper 

 precaution can easily be taken. Methods for stopping the leaks 

 in the older wells will have to be devised. That we have been 

 careless in the past concerning our artesian wells, the greatest 



