PROBLEMS FROM DEVELOPMENT 101 



DISPERSED DEVELOPMENT REMOTE FROM 

 RECHARGE AREAS 



In most wells where water has traveled long distances under- 

 ground from recharge areas, the water is confined under ar- 

 tesian pressure — that is, there is impermeable material above 

 the aquifer at the wells which prevents recharge by downward 

 percolation and confines the water as it moves from the re- 

 charge area toward the wells. The Dakota sandstone is an ex- 

 ample of development of artesian wells in some cases as much 

 as 300 miles from the recharge area. It furnishes water to 

 thousands of wells distributed over an area of thousands of 

 square miles, all remote from the recharge area. 



Dakota Sandstone of the Northern Great Plains. 38 Arte- 

 sian wells have been developed in the Dakota sandstone 

 throughout the Dakotas, northeastern Nebraska, western 

 Minnesota and Iowa, and the initial pressure in some wells 

 was great enough to operate water wheels for power. That 

 was 40 to 70 years ago. With an estimated 10,000 wells 

 reaching the sandstone in North Dakota alone, artesian 

 pressures have dropped until many wells have ceased to 

 flow, and the wells still flowing yield only a few gallons a 

 minute. 



As to quality, the water of the Dakota sandstone has no- 

 toriety rather than fame. Although the waters from some 

 wells are soft and from others hard, practically all are too 

 highly mineralized to meet the standards set by the U.S. 

 Public Health Service for the rest of the nation. Many peo- 

 ple make culinary use of the water, but they, like the brine 

 shrimps in Great Salt Lake, have adapted themselves to 

 water that their brothers and sisters in other regions would 

 find extremely distasteful. The areas where the Dakota sand- 



ss Reference: Wenzel, L. K., and H. H. Sand, Water Supply of the Dakota 

 Sandstone, U.S. Geol. Survey Water Supply Paper 889-A, 

 pp. 1-81, 1942. 



