Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1909-11-10
PORTALES VALLEY
WATER SUPPLY
1t Is Inexhaustible According
to Expert Testimony
and Tests.
A REVIEW AND CRITICISM
Editor Shows Where Govern
ment Man is Wrong in His
Conclusions.
Santa Fe New Mexican:

Santa Fe New Mexican:
Dear Sir: am sure that in the pub.
lication, in your issue of November
| 9Th of the governments recent bulle.
/ tin on the Resources of Portales Val
! ley you have done violence to the facts
and brought incalculable harm to this
section of the territory. For although
you have good authority for believing
! this bulletin trustworthy and doubt
/ less had no intention other than 10
! give the widest publication to the facts
apparently set forth in this circular,
no geological survey of the Portales
! valley has been made recently and Ger
! tainly none was ever attcmpted by Mr
| O. f. MeinZer, upon whose authority
the government is supposed to have is
sued this bulletin. Mr. Meinzer did
make a survey relative 10 the 320acre
j settlements in this and other adjacent
sections and he did visit and look over
most parts of the Portales valley. In
addition to this, Mr. Meinzer has no
, information, except that voluntarily
given him by the people of Portales
who tested, for his benefit, the Humble
well here in town-which is an eight
inch well with four and one-half inch
discharge pipe and was pumped with
six inch centrifugal pump for 81 hours.
The water level was lowered II feet in
the first minute and never lowered
another inch during the 81 hours of
continuous pumping in which it yield
ed 450 gallons per minute. Now, Mr..
MeInzer witnessed this test; made
note of the facts which he considered
remarkable and as indicating unlimit-
, ed water supply. In addition to this
| Mr.. Meinzer questioned hundreds OF
| farmers and residents of Portales who
testified that in their six or eight. years
Of residence here the water supply had
not been reduced an inch and, on the
other hand, had increased with the
years they had been pumped with
windmills. Mr. Meinzer talked with
lIC IilGlI w io al lliCu thI al tNSIAAi NIti
on the court house lawn some years
since. He was given the facts, that
j this well reached the first strata of
water at IS feet another at 80 feet;
and an artesian flow at 285 feet
| which altoghether not strong, ran out
over the casing. Mr.. Meinzer saw
no We'll dug, and only the one men
ton above, tested; but he expressed
himself again and again as being con
tident that the water supply here was
ineXhaustible, urging the people; go
on with your pumping proposition
there is no doubt about your water
supply
But we could not afford TO rely upon
Mr. Meinzers offhand guess; and ac-
most thorough and unqualified test
possible We began two months since,
have spent smoe $4,000 and have kept
an expert hydraulic engineer and a
crew of six men at work for all this
time. The first well was sunk on Mr..
Coppage's place, one mile southwest,
which was IA inches in diamater and
IL feet deep, and though not pumped
long, it yielded 1,200 gallons per min
ute without diminishing the supply.
The next well was an eight inch well
en- the lindsey place, two miles west
OF Portales. This well yielded ESQ
gallons per minute. The third well
was a IA inch well, drilled 100 feet
deep, located within 10 feet of the
second we'll This well was pumped
fol- nearly week and delivered from
$50 to 1000 gallons per minute. The
fourth test well was located on the
Elliott farm in the Bethed community,
some eight miles west of Portales. 1t
is fourteen inches in diamater and SO
feet deep, and Yields from 1850 to l.
$50 falons per minute by actual meas
ure Enclosed find postcard photo
graph Of this well with pump in op-
Grafton.
As against the trustworthiness of
this government circular therefore, we
desire to submit the following facts
CD No geological survey of the Por-
tales valley has been made recently
and no such survey even attempted
by Mr. Meinzer. (2) Mr. Meinzer's
guess is discredited first by the fact
he expressly declared himself as be-
lieving the water supply sufficient and
practically inexhaustible and, second
by the fact that he saw but one test
made and that one diametrically con-
tradicting the conclusions of this alleg
ed geological survey. .(3) P. E. Fuller
of the agricultural department and To-
Gated at Phoenix, Ariz.,. who perhaps
has no superior pumping propositions
for irrigation has made study of the
water supply around Portales and has