SURFACE WATER SUPPLIES
Where underground water is not abundant or not cheaply available, or where larger amounts of water are needed, as in large cities or for irrigation purposes, surface water is used. In general, surface waters are more likely to be contaminated by vegetable and animal matter and to require purification for drinking purposes.
Surface waters are also used for irrigation, water power, drainage, the carrying of sewage, etc. This great variety of uses brings the consideration of surface waters into many fields other than geology, but an understanding and interpretation of the geological conditions is none the less fundamental. This is evidenced by the inclusion of geologic discussions in most textbooks of hydrology, and in the reports of the Hydrographic Branch of the U. S. Geological Survey. The very fact that this important branch of governmental investigation is in a charge of the U. S. Geological Survey indicates its close relation to geology.
The principles of geology used in the study of surface waters relate chiefly to physiography (see Chapter I). It is usually necessary to know the total quantity of flow, its annual and seasonal variation, and the possible methods of equalization or concentration; the maximum quantity of flow, the variation during periods of flood, and the possibilities of reduction or control; the minimum flow and its possible modification by storage or an auxiliary supply. These questions are obviously related to the size and shape of the catchment area, the topography, the rock structure, the relation between underground flow or absorption and the runoff, and other physiographic factors. Quoting from D. W. Mead:[12]
Geological conditions are frequently of great importance in their influence on the quantity and regularity of runoff. If the geological deposits of the drainage area are highly impervious, the surface flow will receive and transmit the water into the mass only through the cracks and fissures in the rock. Pervious materials, such as sandstones, sands, gravels, and cracked or fissured rocks, induce seepage, retard runoff, and, if such deposits are underlaid with an impervious bed, provide underground storage which impounds water away from the conditions which permit evaporation, and hence tends to increase runoff and equalize flow. On the other hand, if such pervious deposits possess other outlets outside of the stream channel and drainage area, they may result in the withdrawal of more or less of the seepage waters entirely from the ultimate flow of the stream. Coarse sands and gravels will rapidly imbibe the rainfall into their structure. Fine and loose beds of sand also rapidly receive and transmit the rainfall unless the precipitation is exceedingly heavy under which conditions some of it may flow away on the surface.
Many of the highly pervious indurated formations receive water slowly and require a considerable time of contact in order to receive and remove the maximum amount.
In flat, pervious areas, rainfalls of a certain intensity are frequently essential to the production of any resulting stream flow. In a certain Colorado drainage area, the drainage channel is normally dry except after a rainfall of one-half inch or more. A less rainfall, except under the condition of a previously saturated area, evaporates and sinks through the soil and into the deep lying pervious sand rock under the surface which transmits it beyond the drainage area. Such results are frequently greatly obscured by the interference of other factors, such as temperature, vegetation, etc.
The natural storage of any drainage area and the possibilities of artificial storage depend principally upon its topography and geology. Storage equalizes flow, although the withdrawal of precipitation by snow or ice storage in northern areas often reduces winter flow to the minimum for the year. Both surface and sub-surface storage sometimes hold the water from the streams at times when it might be advantageously used. Storage, while essential to regulation, is not always an advantage to immediate flow conditions.