El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-08-11

other section prohibits the carrying OF
water more than one and one-haif
miles in an earth ditch, or two and one
half miles through a concrete ditch
This creates a repugnance that should
be remedied by amendment, whlcn
should, however, place some reasonable
limit upon the distance water may be
conducted. Allowing water to be used
for fish ponds is privilege that is
greatly abused and there should be a
remedy for that.
Well drillers should be required to
obtain permission from the supervisor
before using water for drilling pur-
poses; and the drillers' bond should be
so conditioned as to cover repair
work, beyond dispute, there being a
decided difference of opinion among
lawyers in the Pecos valley as to the
correct Interpretation of the law in
that respect. The term of the liabili-
ty of the driller under his bond should
be changed from 80 days to six months
No light casing should be allowed
to be used for any part Of the work.
The members Of the artesian well
board should be allowed enough pay
to at least cover their actual expenses
and no more.
The supervisor should be allowed a
reasonable salary, he to pay all trav-
ering or inspection expenses Office
expenses, such as records and other
supplies, should be paid for out of the
general artesian well fund. If there is
not work enough in a district to pay
a man for that work alone, the office
of supervisor should be combined with
that of county surveyor. rne office.
however, should be kept absolutely
divorced from politics.
The straight fee of SIS per annum
for each and every well is unequal and
unjust taxation. One man pays the
same tax for a well in town used only
to irrigate two or three town lots or
at most one block of ground and fur
nish water for from one to three, four
or five dwellings for domestic pur-
poses, as another who irrigates five. 10
90 or 40 acres and another $50 acres,
including an orchard from which he
has realized from $50 to 1881 per
acre for the apple crop on the trees
An equitable plan would be to measure
the flow of all wells on farms about
March of each year, which would give
a close acreage for that year, and then
levy an assessment of so much per
100 gallons, or at the rate Of so much
per second foot for the flow.
Pumping plants and wells from
which water is used for domestic pur-
poses only, should be taxed a flat rate,
just enough to keep them subject to
the provisions of the law and pay for
the work of looking after them Such
levy should be made by the board of
artesian we'll commissioners and should
be sufficient to cover the years ex-
pense and no more. The levy should be
extended on the regular tax rolls of
the county and collected with the other
taxes.
The provision for the inspection by
the artesian we'll supervisor or ALI
reservoirs main bitches and laterals
connected Herewith as to construction.
both in workmanship and material
used, and to determine the loss there
from by seepage and evaporation" and
see that any such loss, if more than Is
percent during the period provided by
the maximum run allowed, is prevented
by the owner, is a good one, but such
duties cannot be properly discharged
by the one supervisor allowed, in a
county having a large number of ar
tesian wells. Chaves county now has
over 500 artesian wells; Eddy county
has about $780,
The standard method of measuring
water should be- one of the few used
by the United States geological survey.
and water should be measured over a
weir preferably by the Cippoletti sys-
tenn, which is fully explained in bull
letin No. sc of the United States de-
partment of agriculture.
The cubic foot per second, which is
$50 gallons per minute, should be
made the standard unit of volume for
measuring water.