Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1913-01-09

single year, a water supply sufficient
for all time to come-the most valu-
able asset bountiful nature could
possibly bestow upon il.
At Eagle Grove, near Ames, at
Lanesboro, and in all places where
this class of wells has been struck.
hundreds of them are permitted to
flow day and night from year to year
with the inevitable result that the
same thing will eventually take place
in them which terminated the career
of the great Jumbo" well-the head
will become exhausted and the wells
will disappear.
This brings us to the consideration
of one of the most vital problems re-
lative'to the water supply of Iowa.
The Waste Of Artesian Water.
1t is the same old story of Waste
and Want"
We think little of our future in
terests and nothing at all of the in.
terests of those who come after us.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof" is our motto in relation to
every natural resource which a wise
creator has stored up for us.
Our wanton waste of artesian water
is merely a repetition of the story of
natural gas, of oil, and coal, and for
est We think nothing of flaming
wells of gas and lurid lakes of oil; OF
coal mines wrecked by wasteful min.
ing and forest fires which darken the
face of the sun. 1t is enough if today
be provided for. We exhaust, in a
year. products sufficient for century.
We blaze our trail with waste and
ruin and leave the world vastly poorer
than we found it.
1t has taken long ages to store our
artesian reservoirs with their invalu-
able waters. For centuries the water
has percolated into these sandstones
until the point of saturation has been
reached. Enough, and to spare, has
been provided for US and for those
who come after us for centuries to
come.
But wanton waste will lower the
fountain head, and water which now
seems free as air will soon be difficult
to obtain.
The supply of artesian water while
immense is not ipexhaustible. 1t can.
not forever flow and not run out.
Even with careful use, at times, the
head is lowered and other supplies
must be sought. AT Boone, the natur.
al growth of the city so lowered the
head that another supply has become
a necessity. AT Keokuk the flow has
markedly lowered, and at Fort Dodge
the flow is materially less than it was
year ago.
At Keokuk the waste of artesian wa.
ter has been little short of criminal.
The emmense flow there has long been
used for is weight only-being utilized
to run dynamos for city lights. The
flow has rapidly lessened under this
i'll advised use, and the great posi-.
bilities for permanent supply of pure
water for that city have been seriously
impaired.
The conditions at Fort Dodge being
typical of this awful waste-and its
attendant circumstances most familiar
to mel detail briefly our experience
here.
Upon the completion of our artesian
system of three wells about a year and
half ago, the flow from the wells
was Fifty percent in excess of the needs
of the city. Nearly all this water
which gushes forth from the ground
has been permitted to run to waste al
night, and, before the head became
lowered, much of it ran to waste dur.
ing the day as well. A private well
at packing plant, draining the same
artesian basin, also flows to waste
both day and night. The combined
result has been gradual lowering OF
the head, and the flow is already
twenty Five percent less than it was a
year ago.
No amount of entreaty that valves BIZ
placed upon the pipes to hold the
water in the ground until needed fol-
use, could prevail against the notions
of the councilman that 1.-THE wells
would thus become stopped up and
ceased to flow.
Meanwhile, there being no statute
upon which to proceed, this intelligent
community is compelled to sit down
and see one of its most valuable assets
run to waste.