Drilling for Water Under Washington's Dry Wheat Country
A federal geologist probes the desert east of the Columbia and the Big Bend wheatlands to see whether deep wells can water the dry interior — and finds pressure underground, but no free-flowing artesian springs.
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One of the most important lines of work undertaken by the United States Geological Survey is now being made in Central Washington by F. C. Calkins, who is investigating the possibilities of increasing the water supply by sinking artesian wells.
Attention was given to a strip of desert land just east of the Columbia River, and also to a portion of the great wheat-growing region adjoining it on the north and east, which extends northward into the Big Bend of the Columbia and eastward beyond the Idaho boundary. As the district has an arid climate, and its eastern portion is practically without surface streams, the object of the examination was to determine the practicability of sinking deep wells as a means of obtaining water, and especially to determine whether artesian flows could be found. Irrigation from the Columbia, except to a limited extent on its lowest terraces, appears to be impracticable because of the depth and steepness of the sides of the canyon through which the river flows.
East of the Columbia the investigation included Crab Creek, the only perennial stream traversing the region, but its waters were found to be no more than sufficient for the irrigation of its own bottom.
In the wheat lands, where all crops are raised by dry farming and where water for stock and domestic uses was formerly brought from springs, sometimes at great distances, the possibility of increasing the present number of deep wells was carefully considered.
The information gathered indicates that a supply of water sufficient for present needs can be obtained by deep drilling throughout the region examined, at depths of from 40 to 675 feet. While there are no flowing artesian wells, the deep waters are found to be under pressure, and it is believed that in certain of the lower wells along the Northern Pacific Railroad an artesian flow could be obtained by proper casing.
It does not seem that any considerable portion of the wheat lands can be irrigated from deep wells, or that water from this source for irrigation can be found in sufficient quantities in the uncultivated land east of the Columbia, though it is believed that in this section deep wells for stock-watering purposes may be profitably sunk at some points.
“While there are no flowing artesian wells, the deep waters are found to be under pressure, and it is believed that in certain of the lower wells along the Northern Pacific Railroad an artesian flow could be obtained by proper casing.”
This survey predates the Columbia Basin Project by decades, yet it asks the same question that still defines the region: where does the water come from, and who gets to use it? Today the deep wells and gravity canals of Central Washington feed some of the nation's most productive farmland while aquifers and the Columbia itself are stretched thin. The 1900s hunt for artesian springs reads like the opening chapter of the modern Western water fight.
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