Los Angeles herald., 1910-04-10

concluded that by getting line on the
waters of the now showing water Wells,
they could act more intelligently III
the way of overcoming the danger
from these wells. A test for such
cases was decided on, and Mr.. PfetZ-
man is formulating a colorlng matter
that will percolate through the forma-
tion from one well to another. This
test will be made, says the report,
when an operator complains that the
water that his own well is pumping
comes from an adjoining well"
900 WELLS AT COALINGA
Commissioner Baker says an approx
mate estimate shows that there have
been between 800 and 900 wells drilled
in the immediate Coalinga field At
least 100 have been unsuccessful and OF
this number about so near the crop
pings have been abandoned on account
of water and left In such a condition
that they are a present injury and a
future menace to the wells further
down on the formation.
my attention." saws he, "has been
called to rs wells that were practically
water wells. These wells are about one
half of the so-called oil wells which
are making water in the east and
west Coalinga fields. The greater part
of these wells are being worked on in
the hope of fixing them some way so
| that the water viii be shut off from
! the oil sands.
Section 6-21-15, better known as the
Lucille neighborhood' has been called
to my attention a number of times.
! There are upward of 20 wells in this
| section and not more than three are
! free of water ! have visited and eX-
amned the wells of this neighborhood
several times. l soon realized how seri-
ously the neighborhood was affected.
"The different operators have seemed
always to be of the opinion that the
other man was letting the water into
the sand, and I considered the best
step to take was to call all the opera
tors together to talk the matter over
and to devise ways and means to cor
rect the water nuisance of this par
ticular neighborhood."
WILLING TO COOPERATE
The report says that all present at
the meeting seemed to be willing to
cooperate and share their portion of
the expense of arriving at some proper
scientific method of eliminating the
danger to learn where the water comes
from and in which formation they
could expect to find it and they en-
ployed the services of Ralph Arnold,
ex- United States geological surveyor,
!
is done, they will have some basis on
which to work.
Commissioner Baker further says
that when he took charge Of the work
there were about so wells in the west
side outside of section 6 that were
making water. OF this number 13
have been plugged and abandoned, 22
have been cemented off successfully
and most of the others have been
worked on at different times to deter
mine where the water comes FROM
Some of these are supposed to be
watered from adjoining wells and it is
contemplated to make a test such as
suggested above on these latter wells.
Few complaints have come from
companies from the east side field. but
| Baker says he could give but little
| attention to these, as he has all the
work that one man can do on the west
| side. He looked the field over several
times and found 1t necessary for the
matter to be called to the attention of
the operators that are or will be af-
fected by the water moving through the
formation from we'll to another. That
territory, he says carries lighter grav-
ty oil than the other side and the
water takes to the sand more rapidly
than to the sand of the west field.
DIFFER IN CHARACTER
1t is pointed out that the two sec
tions of the Coalinga field are very
different in character, formations diff
fer as well as the water conditions,
and IL Is necessary to learn full and
detailed knowledge of each well to