PROBLEMS FROM DEVELOPMENT 149 



from irrigation in New Mexico, and are far inferior to the 

 water in another ground-water reservoir available to the city. 

 El Paso does use some mineralized Rio Grande water after 

 treatment, mixing it with water from the other reservoir, 

 which does not yield enough potable water to meet the city's 

 expanding needs (see page 57). 



The dumping of brines from oil fields into streams has ren- 

 dered the streams temporarily unfit for use, but appears to 

 have wreaked more permanent damage on the ground-water 

 reservoirs of the watercourse. Thus Ponca City, Okla., was 

 forced to abandon wells in the Arkansas River Valley because 

 of increasing saltiness of the water infiltrated from the Arkan- 

 sas River, contaminated by brines from the Eldorado oil field 

 in Kansas. Salt-water damage to ground water in the alluvium 

 of the North Canadian River downstream from Oklahoma City 

 has been caused largely by disposal of oil-well brines. Several 

 of the towns along this reach of the river once obtained their 

 water supplies from wells in the alluvium, but practically 

 every town has been forced to obtain surface-water supplies 

 from tributaries not affected by oil fields, and the alluvium of 

 the North Canadian River has been abandoned as a source of 

 fresh-water supplies. Six of these towns collected $421,000 as 

 damages by pollution to their former water supplies but were 

 forced to spend more than 2 million dollars for new supplies. 72 



The contamination of a ground-water reservoir by polluted 

 stream water is a major problem in the Philadelphia-Camden 

 area, where about 110 million gallons a day is pumped from 

 wells, chiefly for industrial use. The watercourse of the Dela- 

 ware River here crosses the recharge area of a major ground- 

 water reservoir which extends southeastward into New Jersey. 

 Some of the recharge to that formation doubtless comes from 

 local precipitation but most is probably derived from the Dela- 

 ware and Schuylkill Rivers. The quality of the ground water 

 is deteriorating, as shown by the increasing hardness, iron, 

 and sulfate in solution. Industrial wastes, garbage; and sewage 



72 Schoff, S. L., "Salt-water Intrusion in Oklahoma," U.S. Geol. Survey, 

 Mimeo. rept., May 1941, 5 pp. 



