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Water resources of Randolph and Lawrence Counties, Arkansas

A. G. Lamonds·Marion S. Hines·Raymond O. Plebuch
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Abstract

Water is used at an average rate of almost 27 million gallons per day in Randolph and Lawrence Counties, and quantities sufficient for any foreseeable use are available. Supplies for the large uses--municipal, industrial, and irrigation--can best be obtained from wells in .he Coastal Plain part of the counties and from streams in the Interior Highlands part. The counties have abundant supplies of hard but otherwise good-quality surface water, particularly in the Interior Highlands and along the western boundary of the Coastal Plain. Minimum recorded flows of four streams (Black, Current, Eleven Point, and Spring Rivers) exceeded 200 cubic feet per second, or 129 million gallons per day. Five other streams have flows in excess of 13 cubic feet per second 95 percent of the time. Water supplies can be obtained without storage from the larger streams in the area. Many of the smaller streams in the Interior Highlands also have large water-supply potential because of the excellent impoundment possibilities. Most of the water used in the .two counties is obtained from ground-water reservoirs in the Coastal Plain. Wells that tap alluvial deposits of Quaternary age commonly yield 1,000 gallons per minute. However, the water often is unsuitable for many uses unless treated to remove hardness, iron, and manganese. Water possibly may be obtained in the southeastern part of the area from the Wilcox Group of Tertiary age and the Nacatoch Sand of Cretaceous age, but these formations have not been explored in the report area. Wells in the Interior Highlands generally are less than 200 feet deep and yield 10 gallons per minute, or less. It may be possible to obtain greater amounts of ground water from two unexplored formations, the Roubidox and the Gunter Sandstone Member of the Van Buren Formation, in the Interior Highlands. Ground water in the Interior Highlands is very hard and is more susceptible to local bacterial contamination than is ground water in the Coastal Plain. However, with proper sanitary safeguards against contamination and with treatment for reduction of hardness, ground water in the Interior Highlands is suitable for most uses.

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BibTeXRIS

A. G. Lamonds, Marion S. Hines, Raymond O. Plebuch. 1969. Water resources of Randolph and Lawrence Counties, Arkansas. https://doi.org/10.3133/wsp1879b

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