PROBLEMS FROM DEVELOPMENT 61 



Pasadena is already served from this source. The same alterna- 

 tive source may eventually be available to some residents of Tia 

 Juana Valley at San Diego, where pumpage has been curtailed 

 by adjudication. 



Conservation practices to ensure that water be withdrawn 

 from wells only for beneficial use have reduced ground-water 

 draft in many areas. Several states have statutory prohibitions 

 against waste from artesian wells, and beneficial use has been 

 declared in many states to be the basis, the measure, and the 

 limit of a ground-water right. Methods of eliminating waste 

 from wells range from the simple attachment of a valve to 

 control the flow of an artesian well, to replacing a corroded 

 casing that permits underground leakage, or to the plugging 

 of "wild wells" in which water from an aquifer rises uncon- 

 trolled outside the casing. The Pecos Valley Artesian Con- 

 servancy District has done much to reduce wastage of water 

 from the Roswell artesian basin, N. Mex. The state engineer 

 of Utah has also been actively engaged in plugging "wild" 

 flowing wells in several ground-water reservoirs throughout 

 the state, and the state engineer of Nevada has plugged some 

 wells in Las Vegas Valley. The elimination of waste from wells, 

 whether by voluntary action of the owners or by action of dis- 

 trict and state agencies, has been shown to result in higher 

 water levels and artesian pressures in other wells in the region. 

 However, in many areas where ground-water draft has long 

 exceeded the replenishment, wells have long since ceased to 

 flow by artesian pressure, and wastage of water from wells is 

 likely to consist chiefly of inefficient use of the water; in these 

 areas more efficient irrigation practices are required. 



In several states having ground-water laws based upon the 

 "appropriation" doctrine (see page 246), there have been ad- 

 ministrative determinations that there is no unappropriated 

 water in certain ground-water reservoirs. All available water 

 is deemed appropriated in several ground-water reservoirs hav- 

 ing a long history of draft in excess of replenishment. In the 

 Roswell Basin in New Mexico, in Cedar City Valley in Utah, 

 Las Vegas Valley in Nevada, and the Eloy area of the Santa 



