Ground-water quality in Indian Wells Valley, California
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- Document: Report (pdf)
- Plate: Plate 1 (pdf)
- Download citation as: RIS | Dublin Core
Abstract
Indian Wells Valley is in a semiarid region of the Mojave Desert. The U.S. Naval Weapons Center at China Lake and nearby communities depend upon an adequate source of ground water for their existence. Much of the ground water is of poor quality. Most of the ground-water pumping occurs in the Inyokern, intermediate, and Ridgecrest areas. The quality of ground water in these well fields is considered excellent for public use. The increasingly larger pumping depressions in the well fields do not seem to have significantly changed the natural flow pattern of the poor-quality ground water in the shallow aquifer toward the China Lake playa. In 1972 the flow pattern of the poor quality ground water was not toward these pumping depressions. The recharge to the ground water of sewage effluent from the U.S. Navy sewage ponds and the Ridgecrest Sanitation District sewage ponds has not significantly affected ground-water quality in the valley. There is no indication that recharge of sewage effluent from these ponds is migrating toward the well fields. The dissolved-solids concentration in the ground water in some areas is increasing slightly, but where this has occurred, it is not yet serious.
Study Area
| Publication type | Report |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | USGS Numbered Series |
| Title | Ground-water quality in Indian Wells Valley, California |
| Series title | Water-Resources Investigations Report |
| Series number | 75-8 |
| DOI | 10.3133/wri758 |
| Year Published | 1975 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | U. S. Geological Survey |
| Description | Report: iv, 59 p.; 1 Plate: 28.73 x 21.26 inches |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Other Geospatial | Wells Valley |