Recharge to ground‐water from floods in a typical desert wash, Pinal County, Arizona

Abstract

Queen Creek, considered in this paper, is a typical large desert wash. It rises in the Pinal Mountains near the mining town of Superior and enters the outwash‐plain at Black Point about three miles north of Florence Junction (see Fig. 1). Thence it passes over the desert in a southwesterly direction toward Chandler, spreads over the lowlands, and disappears. The flow of the stream consists almost entirely of storm‐water and is of the quick, flashy type common to the deserts of the Southwest. In ordinary years the stream is dry most of the time. Formerly the flood‐waters spread over the floor of the desert and did no harm. Now, however, they invade highly cultivated lands that are irrigated with water from Salt River or from wells, and cause serious damage to both crops and canals. The damage could be prevented by storing the stormwaters in a reservoir formed by a dam at or above Black Point.