PROBLEMS FROM DEVELOPMENT 123 



Galveston, Texas City, and Baytown are 30 to 50 miles 

 southeast of Houston and depend upon a different and geo- 

 logically younger aquifer for their ground-water supplies. 

 On Galveston Island, the water in that aquifer is too saline 

 for most uses, and the city pumps water from wells on the 

 mainland. The wells in its Alta Loma well field, about 18 

 miles northwest of Galveston, yielded about 5 million gal- 

 lons a day in 1935, but as pumpage increased the water in- 

 creased in salinity. In 1943, a second well field was developed 

 a few miles farther inland. Galveston City now pumps about 

 10 million gallons a day from both fields. Texas City has also 

 had trouble with salt-water encroachment, particularly in 

 1945 when more than 22 million gallons a day was being 

 pumped. In 1948 facilities were completed for utilizing the 

 water of the Brazos River, and pumpage from wells in the 

 past two years has declined somewhat. At Baytown the war- 

 time pumpage of 17 million gallons a day has been reduced 

 since the utilization of San Jacinto River water by some in- 

 dustries. The total pumpage in those three areas reached a 

 peak of more than 45 million gallons a day in the later years 

 of World War II; water levels declined until they were more 

 than 85 feet below sea level in some localities, and several 

 wells began pumping water of increasing salinity. Fortu- 

 nately surface-water supplies are available to the area in the 

 Brazos and San Jacinto Rivers. The utilization of about 23 

 million gallons a day from the Brazos River since 1948 has 

 resulted in substantial reduction in pumpage from wells, 

 and artesian pressures of the deeper wells have risen in the 

 past two years. 



THE DANGER OF DRAWING UNUSABLE WATER INTO THE 

 RESERVOIR 



Intensive development of portions of several ground-water 

 reservoirs has lowered the water table or artesian pressure 

 sufficiently to induce the inflow of unusable waters, either 

 from the ocean or from rock materials impregnated with 

 mineralized water. Ocean water has been drawn into the 



