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Penn Poore Livingston

Publications and source records attributed to Penn Poore Livingston.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1945

Ground-water resources of the El Paso area, Texas

El Paso, Tex., and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and the industries in -that area draw their water supplies from wells, most of which are from 600 to 800 feet deep. In 1906, the estimated average pumpage there was about 1,000,000 gallons a day, and by 1935 it had increased to 15,400,000 gallons a day. The water-bearing beds, consisting of sand and gravel interbedded wire clay, tie in the deep structural trough known as the Hueco bolson, between the Organ and Franklin Mountains on the west, the Hueco, Finlay, and Malone Mountains on the east, the Tularosa Basin on the north, and the mountain ranges of Mexico on the south. From the gorge above El Paso to that beginning near Fort Quitman, about 90 miles southeast .of El Paso, the Rio Grande has eroded a flat-bottomed, steepwalled valley, 6 to 8 miles wide and 225 to 350 feet deep. No other large drainage channels have been developed on the bolson. The valley is known as the El Paso Valley, and the uneroded upland part of the bolson is called the Mesa. In the lowest parts of the El Paso Valley, the water-table is nearly at the surface. The quality of the underground water in the valley varies greatly both vertically and laterally. To a depth of about 400 to 500 feet it is in general too highly mineralized for municipal use, but between about. 500 and 900 feet good water may be obtained from several beds. In the beds between 500 and 900 feet the water level in wells is in places as. much as 20 feet lower than that in the shallow beds. Beneath the Mesa the water level .varies from about 200 feet beneath the surface, where the ground elevation is least, to about 400 feet. where it is highest. The water beneath the Mesa in general is of satisfactory quality and contains less than 500 parts per million of dissolved solids. Two cones of depression in the water table have been formed by the pumping near El Paso--one m the vicinity of the Mesa well field, the other around the Montana well field in the valley. The water released from storage by the formation of the cone centering in the Mesa field was calculated at 22,000 acre-feet, but the total pumpage was estimated to have been 90,000 acre-feet. Thus, about one-fourth of the total pumpage was taken from storage; the remaining three-fourths and apparently was taken from recharge. About 210,000 acre-feet of water has been pumped from the cone of depression in the El Paso Valley in and near El Paso. The volume of this cone could not be determined because there are artesian conditions in this area. Computations were made of the amount of water that would be recovered from storage if, for a distance of 10 miles north of the Mesa well field, the water level in a series of wells were drawn down the same amount as the present drawdown in the wells in that field. The water that would be recovered from storage in the formation 0f this depression in the ground water surface was calculated at about 130,000 acre-feet, the equivalent of about 70 years' supply at the 1935 rate of pumping.It is, of course, available in addition to the annual recharge. The sudden increase in 1924 in the saltwater content of the water from El Paso well 3 (well 52), in the Montana well field, was shown to be the result of a leak in the casing at a depth of about 127 feet, and the well was successfully repaired during the investigation. However, the chloride content of all of the wells in the field has been increasing gradually. This may indicate that salty water is being pulled in from considerable distances or that the barriers between the fresh-water-bearing beds and the saltwater-bearing beds above-them are not capable of preventing vertical movement of the ground water. The fact that in the valley the static water level in the shallow beds yielding poor water is higher than that in the deeper beds is disquieting, and if the level in the lower beds continues to decline, seepage from the river will eventually force the shallow highly mineralized water

Water Supply Paper↗
USGS1944

Exploratory water-well drilling in the Houston District, Texas

In the spring and summer of 1939 a program of exploratory drilling wad undertaken in the Houston district, Tx., in conjunction with a general initiation of the water resources of the district. The main purposes of the program were to determine the thickness and character of water-bearing sands down to a maximum depth of 2,000 feet, the chemical character of the water at different depths, and the artesian pressure and to provide additional observation wells for studying fluctuations in artesian pressure and possibilities of intrusion of salt water from the direction of the Gulf. Thirteen deep test wells, 5? inches in diameter and ranging in depth from 360 to 2,000 feet, were put down with a hydraulic rotary drill by the city of Houston. The combined drilling footage of all of the wells amounted to 17,460 feet, and their averse depth was 1,246 feet. All were electrically logged. Samples of cuttings were collected from the drilling mud after every 20 feet of drilling. In 6 of the wells sand samples were obtained by core drilling in beds at selected horizons, about 230 feet being recovered. A total of 15 samples of sand and water were obtained in 8 wells by the drill-stem method. Side-wall sampling was attempted. Six of the test holes were cased with 3? casing (inside diameter) and equipped with screens so that water-level measurements could be made and samples of water collected for chemical analyses , Selected sand samples were analyzed and tested in a field laboratory for mechanical composition, permeability, and porosity. The field and laboratory data were studied with special reference to the significance of the electrical logs. A comparison of the electrical logs of the test wells with the driller's logs shows that, on the whole, they agree remarkably well in fixing the upper and lower limits of the thicker beds of sand and clay, but that the agreement is not so close where the beds are thin. Variable results were obtained from attempts to correlate the second curve of the electrical log with the permeability and mechanical composition of the sand samples obtained by core drilling and drill-stem sampling. In the case of the core samples there was no apparent relationship between any of the three characteristics in well 3, but in well 5 a slight but distinct increase in the resistivity was accompanied by a large increase in permeability. In well 6 the resistivity in nearly every case varied with the permeability and coarseness of the samples. In well 6 the drilling mud was local clay enriched with Aquagel, whereas in wells 3 and 5 only local clay was used; the data obtained, however, are too meager to be used on a basis for even a tentative conclusion as to the effect of artificial mud on the correlations. In the 15 drill-stem sand samples the data show that, in general, the resistivity of sands having fluid content varies with but is not proportional to the permeability, but there seems to be little or no relationship between the coarseness of the sands and either the resistivity or the permeability. Studies of the relationship of the electrical logs to the salinity of the water indicate that increasing chloride is accompanied by decreasing resistivity. They suggest .that changes in the chloride content are accompanied by large changes in resistivity when the water contains less than 100 parts per million of chloride and by relatively small changes when the chloride content is over 100 parts per million. On the whole, the results of the test drilling from Houston tend to show that, although electrical logs give much information that is useful in the development of water wells, for the present at least these logs should be used in conjunction with driller's logs and drill-stem sampling of both sand and water in all the more promising sand horizons. The tests indicate that an average of 600 feet of .water-bearing sands occurs between the surface and a depth of 1,500 feet along the line of test wells we

Water Supply Paper↗
USGS1944

Geology and ground-water resources of the Big Spring area, Texas

This report gives the principal results of an investigation of ground water in the Big Spring area, Texas. Big Spring, the county seat of Howard County, has an estimated population of about 16,000. It is situated on the Texas & Pacific Ry. and United States Highway No. 80 in western Texas, about 280 miles west of Fort Worth and along the boundary between the Edwards Plateau and the High Plains. Immediately south of the city is the bold escarpment of the plateau; to the north, west, and southwest lie the High Plains; and to the east lie the Osage Plains. The Edwards Plateau is capped by resistant limestones of Fredericksburg (Lower Cretaceous) age, which have a maximum thickness of about 160 feet. These limestones are underlain by sandstones of Trinity (basal Lower Cretaceous) age, which range in thickness from 60 to 100 feet and which form the principal water-bearing bed of the area. The High Plains are underlain in most places by a varying thickness of silt, clay, sand, and gravel, chiefly of Tertiary age. The Osage Plains are underlain chiefly by Triassic redbeds, which in general form an uneven floor beneath the Cretaceous and younger formations in the High Plains and Edwards Plateau. Beneath the Triassic redbeds is a great thickness of Permian rocks, which in parts of the area contain thick beds of rock salt. Over a large part of the plateau the Cretaceous rocks appear to be fiat lying but actually dip so as to form a northwestward-trending syncline. However, in places the rocks have slumped to form depressions or sinks, which serve as collecting basins for the water from the Trinity sand. As both Triassic and Cretaceous rocks are involved in the deformations, it is believed that they .may have been formed as a result of the solution and removal of the Permian salt by circulating ground water. Two of these sinks have been well known for several years. One of them, usually called the city park sink, is about 2 miles south of Big Spring, and the other, usually called the section 33 sink, is about 6 miles southeast of the city. These sinks are nearly circular. They have a diameter of about 1 mile, and the maximum displacement of the beds is 200 to 300 feet. They serve as collecting basins for ground water drained from the Surrounding Trinity sand, and wells drilled in them yield as much as 300 gallons a minute, largely from the cracks and crevices in the Fredericksburg limestones. As the Trinity sand is mostly fine-grained, wells outside the sinks seldom yield more than 20 to 30 gallons a minute. For many years the water supply of Big Spring and most of the water used there by the Texas & Pacific Ry. Co. has come from wells in the sinks, supplemented by a relatively small supply pumped from well fields between them. It is estimated that the perennial yield of the sinks and intervening well fields amount to an average of about 450,000 gallons a day. For several years-the pumpage has been much more than that, and in 1937 it amounted to an average of about 1,000,000 gallons a day. A large part of the water has therefore come from storage, and as a result the water table in the sinks, where the draft has been greatest, has declined to lower levels each year. If the water supply needed by the city continues to increase at the normal rate, most of the remaining water will be exhausted from the sinks in a few years if no other supply is provided. Although in some areas, such as sees. 44 and 45, the rocks are slightly deformed, no deep sinks that are comparable with the city park and section 33 sinks were found on the Edwards Plateau. A large amount of water is stored in the Trinity sand in areas on the plateau south of the present well fields, but as the sands are fine only small yields can be obtained from wells in them. Near Lees, about 12 miles southwest of Big .Spring, is a structural depression or sink about 1 mile in diameter, which contains Cretaceous limestone that is probably fractured and which is overlain by Tertiary

Texas↗
USGS1936

Ground-water resources of Kleberg County, Texas

Abundant supplies of fresh water are obtained from deep artesian wells In all parts of Kleberg County. The water is derived from a stratum of sand, 10 to 150 feet thick, which usually has been referred to the Goliad sand but possibly may be at the base of the LIssie formation. The top of the sand Is reached at depths of around 400 feet In the western part of the county, 600 to 700 feet In the locality of Klngsville, and 1,250 to 1,450 feet In the eastern part of the county. Small supplies of fairly good water are obtained from shallow wells In very sandy areas in the eastern and southern parts of the county, but with this exception, so far as known, no good water has been obtained In the county either above or below the artesian fresh-water horizon. The fresh artesian water Is supplied by percolation from the outcrop of the water-bearing sands, which is many miles to the west In Jim Wells, Brooks, and Duval Counties. The estimated average replenishment from the outcrop to the wells of Kleberg County is 3,000,000 gallons a day. Available Information regarding most of the wells of the county Is given in the table of well records. Of the 43V wells listed 34 are not In use, and the water supplies from the others are used as follows: , Entirely for stock, 151; domestic use and stock, 241; public supply, 3; Industrial supply, 2; Irrigation, 4; railroad supply, 1; unrecorded, 1. About 80 are flowing wells In the southern and eastern parts of the county. It is concluded that the total withdrawal from those wells averages about 4,000,000 gallons a day. Some water is wasted, but the amount is not very great. There has been a general decline In the artesian head throughout the county. The largest decline has been in the western part of the county and In the vicinity of Klngsville, where the water level is now 15 to 45 feet below the surface in wells that once had a strong flow. Wells continue to flow in the southern and eastern parts of the county, but under less head than formerly. There was a small net loss in head in most parts of the county between the winters of 1932-33 and 1934-35, indicating that the decline is slowly continuing. Originally the artesian pressure In the fresh-water sands was much higher than the pressure In the overlying saltwater sands, but this relation has been reversed in the western part of the county and In the district around Klngsville, as a result of the decline in artesian head. Water obtained from the fresh-water horizon is comparatively fresh in the western and central parts of the county but contains a somewhat higher proportion of chlorides toward the Gulf. Samples obtained from about 100 wells, located for the most part in the central part of the county, showed a. higher chloride content than is normal for the freshwater beds in the area. These wells are believed in large part to be defective and to be admitting salt water. This was demonstrated and the leaks located in several wells that were tested. No evidence was found of salt-water contamination by percolation through the formations, however. The leaky wells should be repaired, If practicable, or sealed to prevent them from contaminating the fresh-water sand. The chances of leaks developing can be largely eliminated If the wells are properly drilled and provided with casing of good grade, and the casing is adequately seated.

Water Supply Paper↗