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STATE OF MICHIGAN Table 2. Annual precipitation for the years 1940 to 1949, Ironwood, Michigan. .........................................................7 PROGRESS REPORT NUMBER FOURTEEN Table 3. Monthly normal precipitation and mean temperatures, Ground-Water Resources of the Glacial Ironwood, Michigan. .........................................................7 Deposits, Bessemer Area, Michigan Table 4. Annual pumpage for Bessemer municipal supply. ..11 1950 Table 5. Complete chemical analysis of water from Bessemer’s new production well 2* (Parts per million)...13 by E. A. Brown and W. T. Stuart Table 6. Partial chemical analysis of ground water in the Bessemer area (Parts per million)..................................16 Prepared in cooperation with The United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey ABSTRACT June, 1951 This report is based on an investigation of the ground- water resources in the vicinity of Bessemer in the Contents western part of the northern peninsula of Michigan, made by the Geological Survey of the United States ABSTRACT....................................................................... 1 Department of the Interior in cooperation with the INTRODUCTION............................................................... 2 Geological Survey Division of the Michigan Department of Conservation. The area studied in detail covers about ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................ 3 60 square miles within a 4.5-mile radius of Bessemer, PERSONNEL ................................................................ 3 although an area of about 120 square miles was PREVIOUS WORK........................................................ 3 mapped. The map on figure 3 shows the surface GEOGRAPHY................................................................... 3 geology and location of wells, test borings, and springs. LOCATION AND SIZE................................................... 3 The area is included in the Laurentian Upland CULTURE...................................................................... 3 physiographic province of North America. The TOPOGRAPHY ............................................................. 3 topography is variable, being hilly in the bedrock-outcrop DRAINAGE.................................................................... 4 areas and a rolling plain elsewhere. Altitudes range CLIMATE ....................................................................... 4 from about 1,150 to 1,800 feet above sea level. The GEOLOGY ........................................................................ 4 drainage is northward toward Lake Superior. BEDROCK FORMATIONS............................................ 4 The bedrock crops out in a discontinuous, hilly east-west UNCONSOLIDATED DEPOSITS.................................. 4 band across the central part of the area, and also as Glacial history ..........................................................4 isolated exposures in the southern part of the area. The Subsurface glacial deposits .....................................5 Gogebic range, a major iron-ruining district of the Lake Surficial deposits......................................................6 Superior region, is in the central band. HYDROLOGY ................................................................... 7 During the periods of glaciation many of the low areas GROUND WATER......................................................... 8 between the bedrock highs were filled with glacial General conditions...................................................8 deposits. Information about these glacial formations was Recharge .................................................................8 gained by mapping the surficial deposits and examining Water-level fluctuations............................................9 excavations and logs of wells and test borings. The data Utilization of ground water .......................................9 collected in the inventory of wells, borings, and springs Springs.....................................................................9 are tabulated in appendixes A and B. Wells ........................................................................9 Bessemer municipal water-supply system.............10 Most of the glacial drift in this area is red stony, sandy HYDROLOGIC PROPERTIES OF WATER-BEARING clay to clayey sand, known as boulder till, or hardpan, MATERIALS. By W. T. Stuart..................................... 11 which generally is not of uniform character in vertical Laboratory determinations .....................................11 section. However, widespread sand and gravel deposits Field determinations...............................................11 occur west of Black River and north of Spring Creek, Exploratory drilling......................................................11 about 5 miles northwest of Bessemer and in an area just Production wells .........................................................12 south and southwest of Bessemer in the vicinity of QUALITY OF WATER .................................................... 13 Powder Mill Creek. AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT....................................... 13 The surficial glacial deposits, like the subsurface deposits, consist mainly of hardpan. This material is common in both the bedrock-outcrop and the till plain Tables areas. Sand and gravel occur in several types of deposits, most of which have distinct topographic forms. Table 1. Generalized section of bedrock formations in the These include terraces, eskers, kames and morainal Bessemer area. ................................................................4 knolls. Progress Report 14 – Page 1 of 16 Precipitation, which is the primary source of ground yield of the wells will probably decrease owing to water, amounts to a normal annual total of 34.63 inches lowered water levels, lack of ground-water storage, and according to the U. S. Weather Bureau records at reduction in flow of the creek. Ironwood, 4 miles west of Bessemer. It is fairly evenly Laboratory tests to determine the hydrologic properties distributed by months, although the precipitation in the of the glacial formations were made on samples from the summer exceeds that in the winter. test holes. Ground water exists under modified artesian conditions A 24-hour pumping test on the upper sand and gravel at in most of the area. It is most easily obtained from the the site of test well 2A revealed the field transmissibility glacial sand and gravel, as the other glacial deposits and of these water-bearing materials to be 16,000 gallons the bedrock do not yield water readily. per day per foot and the storage coefficient to be 0.009. Limited ground-water storage capacity of the glacial Short pumping tests on the two new production wells materials, due both to the scarcity of thick sand and showed the field transmissibility of the upper sand and gravel deposits below the water table and to shallow gravel to be 42,400 gallons per day per foot at well 2 and depth to bedrock results in the rejection of much water 21,600 gallons per day per foot for two water-bearing from precipitation that otherwise would become ground formations at well 1. During these tests the specific water. The water level in most wells fluctuates several capacity for well 2 was 43 gallons per minute per foot of feet annually, reaching a peak usually about May, drawdown, and 21.3 gallons per minute per foot for well because of recharge from melting snow and spring rains, 1. and a low either in the fall, because of high transpiration and a lack of rainfall, or in February from reduced recharge because of frozen ground. INTRODUCTION Ground water is used principally for public, industrial, and railroad supplies and for domestic and stock The Geological Survey Division of the Michigan purposes. The quality of ground water in this area is Department of Conservation and the Geological Survey satisfactory for most uses and the water is only slightly of the United States Department of the Interior have to moderately hard. Its temperature varies from about been investigating the water resources of Michigan on a 45° to 50° F. Springs are common around the rock- cooperative basis since 1945. The investigation that cored hills but their yields are small. The largest spring forms the basis of this report was a part of a larger noted had a flow of 50 gallons per minute. Most of the program of determining the ground-water conditions of wells are dug. In the immediate area there are only five the State in order that the most effective use of the water well systems pumping regularly at a rate exceeding 25 resources could be made for farm, public, and industrial gallons per minute. supplies. This report covers the ground-water conditions in the vicinity of Bessemer, Mich. and will be Supplies of ground water for domestic and farm use are incorporated in a general county-wide study of Gogebic generally available throughout the area but supplies County later. greater than about 10 gallons per minute are not easily obtained. The only aquifers suitable for the larger The expansion of the iron-mining industry and the demands are sand and gravel. growth of population in Gogebic County have created a condition whereby the public water-supply systems in Certain areas that appear to be favorable for greater the area are no longer adequate. The three largest development have been determined by this towns in the area, Ironwood, Bessemer, and Wakefield, investigation. They are (1) south of Bessemer in the have