HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



Ground water, partly as spring runs and more particularly as well water, was the sole 

 supply of the people of Long Island up to 1917, when the Catskill water supply project of the 

 City of New York was first introduced into the island boroughs of Kings and Queens. 



Since then the population of the island has increased enormously with resultant increase 

 in the draft on the ground water despite the upland water distribution in the west end of 

 the island. Pumping difficulties delayed this development somewhat, but the general introduc- 

 tion of the deep well turbine pump, which came into general use at the end of World War 1, 

 made it possible to increase the use of ground water for industrial purposes. 



Early in the 1930's a series of water supply applications from the City of New York and 

 various water supply corporations supplying portions of that municipality first made it clear 

 that overpumping of ground water had assumed serious proportions and that regulation of 

 industrial pumping was essential. Whereupon the Legislature, by Laws of 1933, Chapter 

 563, declared that the situation constituted an emergency and charged the Water Power and 

 Control Commission with the duty of regulating industrial as well as public water supply well 

 pumping. 



It immediately became evident that to perform its functions properly the Commission 

 needed more knowledge of the structure of the island, amount of pumping, ground water levels 

 and ground water hydrology. 



The first attempt at an economic study of the geology of water resources of the island 

 was made about the time of the search for water by the City of New York which finally 

 culminated in the installation of the Catskill supply. These studies are given in the Burr- 

 Hering-Freeman report (6) and those of Veatch (9) and Fuller (15). Later they were 

 carried on by the Board of Water Supply of the City of New York as shown in the reports 

 of Spear (14) and Crosby (11). 



In 1933 a surface ground water contour map was prepared by Thomas H. Wiggin, Con- 

 sulting Engineer, and others and introduced as an exhibit in one of the then current water 

 supply applications. This showed that in the western part of the island there had been serious 

 recession of the upper ground water levels from those previously reported. 



By resolution adopted April 9, 1931, the Legislature had set up a joint legislative com- 

 mittee to investigate the potable water resources of the State. This body interested itself in 

 the island situation and engaged the cooperative services of the Geological Survey to make 

 a study of the ground water levels of the island and the fluctuations of such levels (18). This 

 work was continued by the Commission and participated in by the counties of Nassau and 

 Suffolk. It still continues and results of observations on ground water levels are published 

 annually by the Survey. 



By the Laws of 1936, Chapter 839, the Legislature directed the Commission to study and 

 report on this whole subject. An appropriation of $25,000 was made for this, and by later 

 legislation this original sum was made advailable over a number of years. The report as required 

 by law was made on February 1, 1937, and is known as Bulletin GW-2 — "Engineering Report 

 on the Water Supplies of Long Island". 



The work done in connection with this earlier report, not all of which was published, 

 included a well census covering Kings and Queens Counties, report on ground water consump- 



