Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-08-18
Where we Shall Get Water,

EDITOR HERALD: The county of Los Ange-
les contains about 900 900 acres OF land upon
which there is at present no water whatever,
or a supply wholly inadequate tor agricultural
purposes. When say there is no water upon
these lands, I mean so far as present appear
ances indicate, but propose to show that ma
ture has already supplied a reservoir Of as
| founding magnitude and absolutely mex
hausible. There is belonging to all these
| coast lands supply of the liie-giving fluid
which but few of our people dream OF, and
which can be placed on the highest mesa
lands as readily as upon the lowest valleys.
Nature has not bestowed such wonderful
lands without supplying the necessary moist
ure TO make them productive. If we are de-
MED the genial showers from above, we are
granted an ocean of fresh water below us, an
ocean that will rise at our bidding. In five
years from to-day, believe there will be no
such thing known in Southern California as
water rights and privileges This proposition
is startling, but may nevertheless be true.
There are good grounds upon which to base
the broad proposition that there is not in all
this county single acre of land on which
flowing artesian well cannot be secured.
There are now something like 200 artesian
wells In Los Angeles, the water in these being
obtained at the least depth ever known
These cover an irregular area from Artesia to
the sea near Anaheim, and extend across the
railroad below Los Angeles nearly to the
Centinela rancho. These are upon the pri-
mary or upper artesian belt and secure the
floods of very limited watershed. The San
Gabriel and one or two other streams which
disembogue in the San Gabriel Valley are
merely the waste waters of a small gulch on
the edge of the ranges which rise higher and
higher towards the interior. These streams
sink into the earth, but they strike an arte-
sian formation-that is, an impenetrable rock
or clay and course along this strata to the sea.
Now this artesan strata is nearer than any
ever discovered TO the surface. 1t tends up
SO near the surface at Ell Monte as to render
irrigation unnecessary, and finally throws the
water to the surface in places.
1t has been said this little artesian strata,
though capable of irrigating vast quantity
of land, receives the waters OF O very small
shed. There is adeeper Strata and one which
probably underlies all this section. This will
appear from consideration OF the following
points,
Wherever water sinks into the earth, there
must be some subterranean outlet to the sea-
II required very little knowledge of geology
to infer the existence of the primary artesian
belt in this county from the sinking of the
streams. Now, the vast interior basin to the
East of us, extending for hundreds OF miles,
has no surface outlet for the immense guam
tity of water that must fall upon it, and there
are no interior lakes in which it concentrates
to be carried off by evaporation. Beyond
doubt, these waters sink to an artesian strata
and find their way under our feet to the Paci-
fic Ocean. This strata is lower than the pr-
mary one and has fountain-head elevated
from two to four thousand feet above the level
of the sea. At what depth that strata may
be located, of course, theory cannot decide
positively; but such is the geological forma-
tion that it can scarcely be much greater than
900 feet, and may be less. Indeed, it may be
almost directly underneath the primary
strata; for the well diggers here, believe,
have found thus far that the force of the flow
has increased rapidly with the depth of the
boring.
But If it should lie to the depth of 1000 feet
or more, the waters are within reach at a cost
that The productiveness of the land will war
rant. 1t must be borne in mind that all the
great artesian wells of the world where SUR
face drainage exists have been bored to an
immense depth. Indeed. until proven in
California, the geologist would have laughed
at the idea of an artesian well one or two
hundred feet deep; but geology is yet in its
infancy, and man must necessarily know but
little OF the subterranean secret till he has
perpetrated into the bowels of the earth with
auger and drill. The ploughshare of ruin
that has furrowed the earth has played some
strange pranks, but has withal been more
lavish in bestowing blessings upon man on
these shores than elsewhere on the globe.
An element also enters into the cost of con-
structng these wells that needs considera-
ton. If this lower artesian strata be deep in
the EARTH it has tountan-head up in the |
clouds, and therefore will throw the water
hundreds of feet in the air, even ON our mesa |
lands Should this be the case, power is
generated which will compensate the work of
boring. Let the mill-owner calcu late what |
would be the value of six-inch stream,
thrown $50 feet high, to descend ON his tur-
bine wheel.
These are the speculations of science. They |
will have to be verified by the capitalist. |
Should they prove correct what n brilliant
fl ture opens before the people of our section!
c. HARRISON PA RKER.