PROBLEMS FROM DEVELOPMENT 81 



to furnish the water for consumptive use in present opera- 

 tions. All 128 wells were plugged and sealed, and a dozen 

 wells of large capacity were drilled near the center of the 

 property. The new wells yielded 3,000 to 5,400 acre-feet an- 

 nually between 1944 and 1948, somewhat more than the 

 annual yield of the 128 wells in 1938 to 1940, as computed 

 by the state engineer (2,900 to 3,400 acre-feet a year). This 

 greater yield, however, has caused no observable loss in 

 pressure head in private wells adjacent to the steel mill, for 

 artesian pressures in the vicinity have fluctuated in response 

 to precipitation and runoff in the same degree as other wells 

 in Utah Valley. The steel mill wells, because they are remote 

 from the plant boundaries, cause less interference in many 

 outlying wells than was created by individual wells that 

 formerly discharged within the plant area. 



The steel plant's vast requirements for circulating (non- 

 consumptive) water are met by diversions from the Provo 

 River under a contract which obligates the company to re- 

 turn to Utah Lake a quantity of water equivalent to the 

 water diverted from the river, plus the nonirrigation flow of 

 springs and drains and plus all water developed within the 

 plant by subsurface drains. Records show that the lake now 

 receives quantities of water from the plant area substantially 

 greater than were contributed prior to construction of the 

 mills, and greater than the amount of water diverted from 

 the river for plant use. The excess may be due in part to 

 climatic conditions, because recent years have been some- 

 what wetter than the prewar years, and a greater flow from 

 the area to the lake would be expected. But certainly, a 

 substantial part of the excess represents water salvaged by 

 the company from loss by evapotranspiration within the 

 steel-plant area. 



The quantity developed by the subsurface drains (con- 

 structed to lower the shallow water table in the plant area) 

 is two to five times as great as the total return flow from the 

 area in prewar years. In 1948 the Geneva Steel Company 

 released 3,300 acre-feet more water to the lake than required 



