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pg b097a: Fourth annual report of the Geological Survey of Texas Publication 5235917-4.

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97

with a fertile soil, a never-failing supply of water, and a climate so genial as to permit agricultural operations throughout the year, are almost beyond comprehension. The water has been used for domestic and stock purposes, but some few progressive men have applied some of the waste water to irrigation, with results so satisfactory as to lead to the belief that irrigation will ere long be the rule instead of the exception, and that where needed the water from artesian wells will be used for irrigation to the fullest practicable extent.

The following is as complete a list of the artesian wells in the coast region and Tertiary belt as I have been able to obtain:

GALVESTON CITY AND COUNTY.

As before stated, the city of Galveston derives its water supply for public use from a series of artesian wells, thirteen in number, all on Winnie street, between Seventeenth and Forty-fifth. The course of Winnie street is nearly due east and west, and the practically uniform depth at which the water-bearing sand was reached in all the wells indicates that they follow the strike of the strata. The well at Seventeenth street was driven through the water-bearing stratum supplying the other wells, with the design of finding better water; but that found at the depth of 1346 feet proved inferior, and no more wells were driven to that depth by the city. The wells at Forty-third and Forty-fifth streets are probably in a basin, there being no other way of accounting for the increased depth.

The flow from all the wells is collected in a reservoir at the waterworks station, at Thirtieth and Winnie streets, and pumped into a standpipe 125 feet high, 1,000,000 gallons capacity, whence it is distributed to all parts of the city by an excellent system of mains, and used by the city for fire purposes. It is also used by the smaller manufacturing establishments (the larger having their own wells), and to a limited extent for domestic use when a drouth begets a scarcity of cistern water. The Mallory line steamers also fill their tanks from the city wells, the engineers on these boats claiming that the Galveston artesian water cuts the scale that accumulates in the boilers from the use of the Croton water of New York.

The location, depth, and flow of the city wells is given below, the flow of each having been measured when developed:

 

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