Geology topics

Research about Weber County, Utah

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Weber County, Utah.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS1994

Ground-water hydrology of Ogden Valley and surrounding area, eastern Weber County, UT, and simulation of ground-water flow in the Valley-fill aquifer system

The ground-water resources in Ogden Valley, eastern Weber County, Utah, were the subject of a study to provide a better understanding of the hydrologic system in the valley and to estimate the hydrologic effects of future ground-water development. The study area included the drainage basin of the Ogden River upstream from Pineview Reservoir dam and the drainage basin of Wheeler Creek. Ogden Valley and the surrounding area are underlain by rocks that range in age from Precambrian to Quaternary. The consolidated rocks that transmit and yield the most water in the area surrounding Ogden Valley are the Paleozoic carbonate rocks and the Wasatch Formation of Tertiary age. Much of the recharge to the consolidated rocks is from snowmelt that infiltrates the Wasatch Formation, which underlies a large part of the study area. Discharge from the consolidated rocks is by streams, evapotranspiration, springs, subsurface outflow, and pumping from wells. Water in the consolidated rocks is a calcium bicarbonate type and has a dissolved-solids concentration of less than 250 milligrams per liter.

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USGS1945

The Ogden Valley artesian reservoir

Ogden Valley, in Weber County, Utah, contains an artesian reservoir from which the city of Ogden obtains all except a small part of its municipal water supply. A detailed investigation of the ground-water resources of Ogden Valley, and particularly of this artesian reservoir, was made by the Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior, in cooperation with the city of Ogden between 1932 and 1934, and the results of this investigation have been reported by Leggette and Taylor. 1 The present paper, which might be termed a sequel to that report, is based on data collected during those years, augmented by records that have been obtained (1935-1940) by the Geological Survey as part of a State-wide project in cooperation with the Utah State Engineer. The conclusions drawn from the study of these records and presented in detail in the following pages are as follows: (1) The artesian reservoir is filled to capacity nearly every year during the spring run-off from melting snow; (2) after the annual freshet, the recharge to the reservoir is insufficient to balance the discharge from artesian wells, which ordinarily is at a maximum during the summer; the reservoir is depleted and is not filled again until the following spring; (3) during the periods when the artesian reservoir is not full the rate of recharge is more or less proportional to the inflow to the valley by streams, except that rain on the recharge area may be of sufficient intensity to contribute some water by infiltration and deep penetration; and (4) the artesian reservoir thus serves to store water that would otherwise be lost to Great Salt Lake in the excess spring overflow, and available records indicate that water used by increased draft from wells would be replenished in normal years by increased recharge during the spring freshet.

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USGS1937

Geology and ground-water resources of Ogden Valley, Utah

Ogden Valley is a fault trough bounded on both the east and west by faults that dip toward the middle of the valley. This fault trough contains unconsolidated deposits of clay, sand, and gravel, whose thickness is more than 600 feet. These materials are stream and lake deposits and in places are well sorted and stratified. The lake sediments were laid down in a small lake that occupied Ogden Valley and that was connected with glacial Lake Bonneville at its high stage by an arm of water that occupied Ogden Canyon. During this stage of Lake Bonneville the Ogden Valley was completely filled with lake sediments up to an altitude of about 4,900 feet. These sediments include about 70 feet of clay, sand, and gravel in alternating layers, below which is a bed of varved clay whose maximum thickness is about 70 feet. This clay is continuous under the lower parts of the valley and is the confining bed that produces the artesian conditions. Below the varved clay is a deposit of silt, sand, and gravel of unknown thickness, most of which is believed to be pre-Bonneville alluvium. In most summers the streams entering Ogden Valley are diverted for irrigation, and the upper parts of their channels are generally dry during the irrigation season. Lower down in the valley seepage water appears in the channels, and below these points there is continuous flow. The flow of the Ogden River increases as it passes through Ogden Canyon. This gain in flow is believed to be derived chiefly from ground-water seepage from the canyon walls, although there is probably some groundwater underflow from Ogden Valley at the head of Ogden Canyon. Some of the gain is also due to leakage from pipe lines in the canyon. Of the 146 wells whose records are given in this report, 70 are flowing wells.

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