198 CONSERVATION OF GROUND WATER 



due in part to upward movement of water from an artesian 

 reservoir. The water table could be lowered by pumping from 

 the artesian strata, but this has not yet been attempted except 

 on an experimental basis. In Imperial Valley, Calif., where 

 there is a dearth of permeable sediments at any depth, drain- 

 age problems have resulted from irrigation of land by water 

 from the Colorado River. 



Cache Valley, Utah and Idaho.* 2 Cache Valley, in north- 

 ern Utah and southeastern Idaho, has ample water resources 

 to sustain its current needs, and since the Bear River dis- 

 charges an average of 750,000 acre-feet a year into Great 

 Salt Lake, it is evident that there are possibilities of ad- 

 ditional development of water in its drainage basin, which 

 includes Cache Valley. Most of the water used for irrigation 

 is diverted from streams, several of which drain limestone 

 mountains and have a well-sustained flow throughout the 

 irrigation season. Wells yield perhaps 20,000 acre-feet a year 

 for irrigation, stock, and domestic use and waste, and nearly 

 all of them are flowing wells. The withdrawal from wells is 

 generally less than the average recharge, and shut-in artesian 

 pressures are ordinarily highest in August, even though 

 practically all wells are flowing at that time. It is likely that 

 the ground-water reservoir now contains substantially more 

 water than it did a century ago, because of irrigation in the 

 valley. 



The most serious water problems in Cache Valley are 

 caused by too much water. Thousands of acres of land on 

 the floor of the valley are waterlogged. The Utah Power and 

 Light Company's Cutler Reservoir occupies 6,000 acres near 

 the outlet of the valley and was once regarded as largely 

 responsible for the high water table in a much larger area. 



33 References: Peterson, W., Ground-water Supply in Cache Valley, Utah, 

 Utah State Agr. Coll. Ext. Ser. M.S. 133, 1946, 102 pp. 

 Israelson, O. W., and W. W. McLaughlin, Drainage of Land 

 Overlying an Artesian Ground-water Reservoir, Utah Agr. 

 Exp. Sta. Bull. 242, 1932, 56 pp.; Bull. 259, 1935, 32 pp. 



