If we were to attempt to describe and define the characteristics, with reference to dissolved mineral content and temperature, which make a given water more desirable than another, we should enter a field of the most amazing complexity and one with many surprising contradictions. For the most widespread use, the most desirable water is a cold water as free from mineral content as possible, and especially one lacking an excess of lime and magnesia which make it hard; also lacking an excess of acid constituents like sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, or chlorine, which give the water a taste, or which make impossible its use in boilers. Locally and for special reasons, waters of other qualities are in demand. Waters so excessively carbonated as to bubble, sulphureted waters, chlorine waters, waters high in iron, high in silica, high in potash, high in soda, or high in magnesia, or waters of high temperature, may come to be regarded as desirable. It is an interesting fact that any water with unusual taste, or unusual mineral content, or unusual temperature, is likely to be regarded as having medicinal value. Sometimes this view is based on scientific knowledge; sometimes it is an empirical conclusion based on experience; and again it may be merely superstition. In one case the desirable feature may be the presence of a large amount of carbon dioxide; in another case it may be its absence. In one case the desirable feature may be high temperature; in another case low temperature. The same combination of qualities which in a certain locality may be regarded as highly desirable, may be regarded as highly detrimental somewhere else where certain other types of waters are in vogue.
Proprietary rights and advertising have brought certain waters into use for drinking purposes which are not essentially different from more widely available waters which are not regarded as having special value. Two springs located side by side, or a spring and a deep well, whose waters have exactly the same chemical characteristics, may be used and valued on entirely different scales. Any attempt to classify mineral waters sold to the public in any scientific way discloses a most intricate and confused situation. One can only conclude that the popularity of certain waters is not based alone on objective qualities of composition, but rather on causes which lie in the fields of psychology and commerce.
The part played by sentiment in putting value on water is well illustrated by the general preference for spring waters as compared with well waters. In the public mind, "spring water" denotes water of unusual purity and of more desirable mineral content than well water. Illustrations could be cited of districts in which the surface or spring waters have a composition not different from that of the deeper well waters, and are much more likely to be contaminated because of proximity to the surface; and yet people will pay considerable sums for the spring water in preference to the cheaply available well water.
RELATION OF GEOLOGY TO UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY
It is obvious that a knowledge of geology is helpful in locating an underground water supply. Locally the facts may become so well known empirically that the well driller is able to get satisfactory results without using anything but the crudest geologic knowledge; but in general, attention to geologic considerations tends to eliminate failures in well drilling and to insure a more certain and satisfactory water supply.
In drilling for water, it is essential to know the nature, succession, and structure of the rocks beneath the surface in order to be able to identify and correlate them from drill samples. The mere identification of samples is often sufficient to determine whether a well has been drilled far enough or too far to secure the maximum results. In order to arrive at any advance approximation of results for a given locality, a knowledge of the general geology of the entire region may be necessary. Especially for expensive deep artesian wells it is necessary to work out the geologic possibilities well in advance. It is useless, for instance, to look for artesian water in a granite; but in an area of gently inclined strata, with alternations of porous and impervious layers, the expert may often figure with a considerable degree of certainty the depth at which a given porous stratum will be found, and the pressure under which the water will be in this particular stratum at a given point. Even the mineral content of the water may in some cases be predicted from geologic study.
One of the most obvious and immediately useful services of the geologist in most localities is the collection and preservation of well samples for purposes of identification and correlation of rock formations, and as a guide to further drilling. Failure to preserve samples has often led to useless and expensive duplication of work.
The problem of water supply in some localities is comparatively simple and easy. In other areas there is an infinite variety of geologic conditions which affect the problem, and the geologist finds it necessary to bring to bear all the scientific knowledge of any sort which can be used,—particularly knowledge in relation to the type of rock, the stratigraphy and the structure.
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.