Pumping from wells on the floor of the Sevier Desert, Utah

Data collected at the Topaz Relocation Center provide an excellent record of the development and subsequent disappearance of a cone of depression caused by pumping. This Center occupied temporarily an area of natural ground‐water discharge on the floor of the Sevier Desert in west‐central Utah. Water for a population of 6500 was pumped from artesian wells which tapped aquifers of sand. Overlying these sand beds are lake‐bed sediments too impermeable to yield water to wells, but apparently permeable enough to permit slow upward movement of water from the artesian aquifers. The water table is near the surface, and there is natural discharge by evapotranspiration, accumulation of “alkali” in the soil, and a need for drainage of irrigated lands. The wells were abandoned when the Relocation Center was closed, apparently because these handicaps were so great that the ground water could not be used profitably for irrigation.