A new interactive map of Snake Valley with all of the well data, has recently been added to the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) Web site.  The West Desert Ground-Water Monitoring Network is almost complete and updates are available on a newly developed Google Earth™ interactive map.  The network will monitor ground water for more than 50 years in Snake Valley, western Millard County and adjacent areas.  The $3.5 million network is a response to planned ground-water development in east-central Nevada.  The Utah Geological Survey will upload data onto its Web site.

Objectives included: assessing the potential impacts of pumping on ground water and spring flow in Utah; evaluating flow patterns in the aquifer from Snake Valley to Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge; determining baseline water-level and chemical trends in local and regional ground-water flow systems; and, measuring the capacity of the aquifers to transmit and store ground water.

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SNOWMELT-INDUCED GROUND-WATER FLUCTUATIONS IN SELECTED NORTHERN UTAH LANDSLIDES—PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM THE 2007–08 LANDSLIDE WATER YEAR
Francis X. Ashland

The relationship between ground-water levels and late winter/early spring snowmelt was evaluated at selected northern Utah landslides where ground-water observation wells had previously been installed. The period of investigation between September 2007 and August 2008 was characterized by generally wetter-than-normal conditions in the fall and early winter and subsequent drier-than-normal conditions. Snowfall in early winter resulted in a sustained snowpack that lasted through early 2008 at low elevation and into the spring at higher elevation. Ground-water levels predictably rose with melting snow, but the proportion of the rise attributable to melting of the winter snowpack varied. Peak  ground-water levels consistently followed the onset of snowmelt, and locally occurred subsequent to local snowmelt around the vicinity of the observation well. At some locations, high ground-water levels were sustained for weeks or longer despite dry conditions in the spring and early summer.

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The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) needs your help in locating fissures in the Cedar Valley area of Iron County. The Central Iron Water Conservancy District has asked the UGS to study earth fissures in the Enoch area and adjoining parts of Cedar Valley in Iron County.

“Our hope is that by putting out the information on fissures and what they are, people might recognize them and direct us to where they are,” said Mike Lowe, UGS Ground-Water and Paleontology Program Manager.

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