PROBLEMS FROM DEVELOPMENT 121 



ground-water levels declined steadily throughout World War 

 II, and the situation became so serious that one of the large 

 industries started conservation measures that reduced the 

 pumping enough to halt the declining trend. The city has also 

 developed ground-water supplies from the watercourses of the 

 west and middle branches of Nimishillen Creek, which now 

 furnish about 12 million gallons a day (page 147). Since 1945, 

 the trend of water levels in wells within the city has been up- 

 ward. At Shreveport, La., many deep wells have been aban- 

 doned because of declining water levels; there the watercourse 

 of the Red River has been recommended as a plentiful source 

 of hard water suitable for cooling and air conditioning. 



One of the outstanding areas of concentrated ground-water 

 draft in the country is that around Houston and Galveston, 

 Tex., where total pumpage from artesian ground-water res- 

 ervoirs approaches 300 million gallons a day. 



Houston and Galveston, Tex. 5i Houston, with a popula- 

 tion of 594,000 in 1950, is the largest city in the coun- 

 try dependent upon ground water for all municipal and 

 most industrial uses. The artesian ground-water reservoir 

 that supplies the city is heavily developed by wells distrib- 

 uted over a wide area. In Houston and the Pasadena indus- 

 trial area to the east, pumpage from wells has increased from 

 50 million gallons a day in 1930 to 80 million in 1940 and 

 to about 150 million gallons a day in 1949. Since 1940, wa- 

 ter levels in wells have declined more than 70 feet in 

 downtown Houston and 100 feet near Pasadena. In this 

 area a broad cone of depression has formed. Water levels 

 are now below sea level throughout an area of more than 

 500 square miles, and at Pasadena they are more than 150 

 feet below sea level. However, the amount removed from 

 storage is shown by detailed hydrologic studies to be small in 



s* References: Texas Board of Water Engineers, Progress rept. for period 

 Sept. 1, 1946-Aug. 31, 1948, pp. 127-131, 1948. 

 Lang, J. W., and A. G. Winslow, Geology and Ground-water 

 Resources of the Houston District, Texas, Tex. Board of 

 Water Engrs. Bull. 5001, October 1950, 36 pp. 



