The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-09-10
ARTESIAN WE'LL POWER
gov SOUTH DAKOTA UTILITIES
HER sUBTERRANEAN WATERS.
Vhe Wells Are Used to Generate
Power-EIectric Lights and Flour
ing Mills Run By Them-Utah
Might Proft BY This Example.

lFrom the Street Railway Review.I
Work has been quietly going on in
South Dakota for the past year which
seems to prove that the artesian wells
of the James river valley are as valu-
able and reliable a kind of water power
as could be wished, and from all indi-
cations will continue to be so for years
tcftome. Already a number of electric
light and flour mill plants have been
installed, and are in daily operation
Inc artesian well district of South
Dakota is located in the valley of the
James river, covering a tract about
90 miles wide and 200 miles long. The
James river is about half way between
the missouri and the eastern boundary
OF the state. The water-bearing rock
is found at from 900 to 1000 feet from
the surface. The first and most vital
question that comes up is as to whether
the supply is reliable, and can be de-
pended on to continue WITH its present
pressure, as more wells are sunk and
a greater volume of water is drawn
from the underground source.
There are good reasons for thinking
that the supply is practically mex
haustble. These reasons are based
both on the theories advanced by the
United States government biologists
and on observed facts in connection
\ with the sinking of wells. The gov
t-ernment theory is founded on the fact
that the same stratum in which the
wafer is found outcrops in the beds
of the upper Missouri and Yellowstone
rivers and at the base of the Rocky
mountains. The water, sinking in this
porous stratum of rock, follows it for
hundreds of miles, until tapped by the
South Dakota wells. 1t has long been
believed that there is more water in
the Missouri river above the Great
Falls than there is 80 miles below. For
Is or 80 miles below the falls the river
bed is composed of the same sand for
NATION in which the South Dakota
wells get their water. If this
theory is correct, as it proba bly, is, the
supply of water to these wells may be
looked upon as inexhaustible-at least
as much so as the sources of our
&RScky mountain streams. Another
S9t that would point Mrongly to the
truth of this theory is THAI during the
June rise in the upper Missouri river
the pressure in the wells rises. No di-
minution in pressure has been noticed
in any of the wells in the district, eX-
cept by clogging up with mud, due
to improper piping. The city well at
Redfleld has been down seven years Its
pressure has been constant. although
numerous other wells have Eince been
sunk at no great distances from it.
This well furnishes a direct pressure
system of water works supplying all
the domestic needs of the city, and so
great confidence is placed upon the
pressure and supply that the fire de-
partment requires no fire engines. The
closed pressure of this well is III
lg~Inds and cost for maintenance is
HQAputely nothing
fqz3bout a mile and a half distant is
D sfSther well, used for running an cleo
4 fffc. light plant and for irrigation. A
description of this well VII suffice to
give a fair idea of ALL 1t is 1000 feet
deep, and six inches in diameter from
top to bottom. When allowed to flow
freely through the siX-inch pipe, it
yields 2,027 gallons per minute, and
rises to height of 16 feet in the air
When the water is escaping through
a two-ineh pipe the well pressure is
l2S pounds, and with a 23-inch OPEN
ing % pounds From this it is esti-
mated that with a four-foot Pelton
wheel. S0-horse power would be devel-
oped with a two-inch opening. and 100
horse power with a % inch With the
plain undershot wheel at present in
place. 50-horse power is developed, and
it is calculated that about Is more
is available with it. The flow is abso-
1utely steady. This well cost $4,000.
Ar Chamberlain "a $50 pound barrel
-four mill and light plant. formerly run
by steam, is now using well power.
These two plants were started in Sep
TENDER, 1893 At Huron a well is about
to be sunk by the city for electric
lighting purposes. The first electric
light plant in the state, run from
we'll is at Mellette, a town of 400 in
Ia bitants. 1t is safe to say that very
few plants in the world are doing a
paying business in SO small place
This plant is thriving. however, and
has connected 10 four-ampere arcs and
$50 sixteen-candle power incandescents.
The well is only four and one-half in
ches in diameter from top to bottom,
but it operates, besides the electric
light plant, a flour mill, which grinds
$50 barrels of flour day and so bushels
of feed per hour. This work would re-
cuire an engine of 40 horse power. The
we'll is 80 feet deep. Its pressure when
h Closed is 17S pounds. The flow is 1000
gallons per minute.
The outlay for an 50 horse power we'll
Is about $4,000, the interest on which
would be 1925 per horse power per
annum. This, with the interest and
depreciation on the water wheel, is the
Only expense for primary motive DOW
er, aside from labor. A $500 or $500
building gives the wheel and dynamo
good shelter. The repairs to the water
wheel ought to be almost Zero and the
sloSl of the men employed for atten-
da1ce does not begin TO be that re-
oyired in steam plant.
n a