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The Dakota sandstone underlies most of North Dakota and South Dakota and considerable parts of nearby States. In most of the area that it occupies it is covered with thick deposits of younger formations, chiefly shale, that confine the water in the sandstone under considerable pressure. Where the topography is favorable, as it is in the Ellendale-Jamestown area in southeastern North Dakota, wells that tap the sandstone flow at the surface. The first well in North Dakota to tap the Dakota sandstone was drilled in 1886 in the city of Ellendale. It was started as an 8or 10-inch hole and was finished at a depth of 1,087 feet with a 3%-inch casing. It flowed 600 to 700 gallons a minute and had a pressure reported by different persons as being from 115 to 175 pounds to the square inch. The expense of drilling such large and deep wells discouraged their construction for a time. About 1900, however, the jetting method of drilling was introduced^ and during the following two decades hundreds of farm wells 1 inch to 2 inches in diameter were sunk to the sandstone. The decline in artesian head that resulted from the increased draft on the basin was not apparent at first, but by about 1915 the flow of most wells had decreased noticeably and the flow of a few wells in the western part of the area of flow stopped entirely. It is estimated that by 1923 the artesian head at the western boundary of the area of artesian flow had fallen about 330 feet from its original level. In 1916 steps were taken to initiate measures for conserving the artesian water in North Dakota, but it was not until 1921 that the State legislature passed a law providing for the reduction of flow of artesian wells to that which could be used beneficially. The enforcement of the law was placed in the office of the State geologist, and this difficult task was assigned to H. E. Simpson, who directed the work until his death in 1938. Between 1923 and 1928 each artesian well in the Ellendale-Jamestown area was visited and advice was given the owner regarding the flow to which his well should be reduced. Many of the wells were visited again between 1928 and 1935 in order to check on whether the flow had been 1 2 CONTRIBUTIONS TO HYDROLOGY OF UNITED STATES, 1941 sufficiently reduced. Through this program much artesian water was conserved and much valuable information was obtained on the discharge from the basin. It is estimated that between 1920 and 1923 the artesian head in the western part of the Ellendale-Jamestown area declined at an annual rate of about 4 feet, whereas in 1938 the rate of decline was only about 0.5 foot a year. Between 1915 and 1923 the part of the area of artesian flow in the Edgeley quadrangle was reduced an average of 16.5 square miles a year as a result of the eastward movement of the western boundary of the area. Between 1923 and 1938, however, the average rate of shrinkage of this part of the area of artesian flow was only about 4.5 square miles a year. The perennial recharge to each row of townships in the area of artesian flow has been estimated to be about 500 gallons a minute. In 1923 the flow from wells in T. 129 N., Rs. 50 to 65 W., was about 1,000 gallons a minute, or twice the estimated recharge. In 1938 the flow from wells in this row of townships was about 520 gallons a minute, or only slightly more than the estimated recharge. Thus it appears that a balance is being approached between the withdrawal of water from the basin and the perennial recharge to it. It is believed that the water withdrawn from the basin in excess of the perennial recharge has been obtained from storage by the compression of .the sandstone and associated beds of shale due to the increased load placed upon them by the decline in artesian pressure. Calculations made on this theory indicate that the coefficient of storage is about 0.001 that is, about 0.001 cubic foot of water is released from each column of sandstone and shale 1 foot square for each foot of decline in artesian head. Additional computations show that the effect of the large decline in artesian pressure in southeastern North Dakota probably has caused only a few feet of lowering of artesian head at distances of more than 100 miles west of the area of artesian flow. The quality of the artesian water is very poor and much of it is unfit for human consumption. Of the 33 analyses included in this report, all show total dissolved solids of more than 2,200 parts per million. Much of the water is salty, and all contains sufficient fluoride to cause mottling of the enamel of the teeth. The temperature of the water from flowing wells ranges from 47° to 69° F. INTRODUCTION PURPOSE AND SCOPE OP THE INVESTIGATION The investigation on which this report is based is a unit of a Statewide program, of ground-water studies begun in July 1937 by the Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior, in cooperation with the North Dakota Geological Survey. The purpose of the program is to make a thorough study of the distribution and character of the principal sources of ground water throughout the State, the quantity and quality of the water from each source, the state of depletion, and the quantity of water that is perennially available. This information made generally available will contribute to a satisfactory and economical solution of the problem of water-supply insofar as it relates to underground sources. In 1937 a State-wide system of observation wells 1 was established, by means of which 1 Water levels and artesian pressure in observation wells in the United States in 1937: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 840, pp. 319-328,1938. Water levels and artesian pressure in observation wells in the United States in 1938: U. S. Qeol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 845, pp. 346-369, 1939. ELLENDALE-JAMESrFOWN AREA, NORTH DAKOTA 3 ground-water levels are observed periodically and are interpreted with respect to depletion of the supply and natural replenishment by the water from rain and snow. A critical study was also undertaken of the decline of artesian pressure and flow in the Dakota artesian basin in the Ellendale-Jamestown area and of the problem as to the future of the artesian water supply under efficient regulation. In the investigation of the Dakota basin an attempt has been made to ascertain the change in artesian pressure that has occurred since an artesian water conservation program was started in 1923 (see pp. 6-10), with a view to determining whether the conservation workhas resulted in restoring the artesian head of the water in the basin or at least in checking the decline. Field work for the study was done in 1937 chiefly by H. H. Sand and H. E. Simpson, Jr., both of the North Dakota Geological Survey, and in 1938 chiefly by Mr. Sand. The study was conducted under the general direction of O. E. Meinzer, geologist in charge of the Division of Ground Water in the Federal Geological Survey. L. K. Wenzel, of the Federal Geological Survey, was the engineer personally in charge of the ground-water investigation. Cooperation was carried on through H. E. Simpson, State geologist ] until his untimely death in 1938; thereafter through his successor, F. C. Foley. The Ellendale-Jamestown area is shown on plates 1 and 2 and includes all or parts of six quadrangles, namely, Columbia, Eckelson, Edgeley, Ellendale, Jamestown, and La Moure. Intensive field work was carried on chiefly along the western edge of the area of artesian flow in the Edgeley and Ellendale quadrangles. Data on the remainder of the area were obtained mostly from records collected between 1923 and 1935 by the State Geological Survey. THE DAKOTA ARTESIAN BASIN The group of strata commonly known as the Dakota sandstone are of Cretaceous age and underlie most of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska, and considerable parts of Kansas and other nearby States. These strata in one region probably are not exactly equivalent to those in another. In most places the Dakota sandstone is covered with younger formations, chiefly shales, and it appears at the surface only at widely separated localities, such as along the East Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in the vicinity of the Black Hills, and in a belt extending from northeastern Nebraska to southcentral Kansas and beyond. Consequently, in North Dakota, where the Dakota sandstone does not crop out, and over other wide areas its character is known only from samples obtained in drilling operations. In sinking deep wells in North Dakota and in many other parts of the region underlain by the Dakota sandstone, the drill, after 4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO HYDROLOGY OF UNITED STATES, 1941 passing through the overlying strata, encounters alternating beds of sandstone and shale that range in aggregate thickness from less than a hundred feet to a few hundred feet. Meinzer 2 points out that it is generally assumed that the .first distinct sandstone stratum encountered by the drill marks the top of the Dakota sandstone and that the entire succession of alternating shales and sandstones belong to this formation, although it is recognized that the lower strata may belong to one or more other formations. To what extent the alternating sandstone and shale beds are continuous over wide areas is not definitely known, but the group of beds is believed to be continuous in the aggregate. The permeable Dakota sandstone and the overlying impermeable ghales form the Dakota artesian basin, a basin that is one of the most remarkable in the United States with respect to its great extent, the long distances through which its water percolates, and the high pressure under which the water in it was originally confined. Water from rain and snow seeps into the sandstone where it crops out at high altitudes along the East Front Range and in the vicinity of the Black Hills and then percolates slowly eastward. The dip of the strata in and near the western outcrops is steep. Eastward the dip becomes more gentle, and in the ea

Water supply of the Dakota sandstone in the Ellendale-Jamestown area, North Dakota, with reference to changes between 1923 and 1938