Las Vegas, Sparks, and Reno use a lot of water. The demand on the water supply is increasing by leaps and bounds in those cities. These are desert cities so where is there water coming from?

Reno gets water from The Truckee and Las Vegas from The Colorado rivers. Between Las Vegas and farming, very little water gets to the Gulf of California. The Mexicans don't like little water getting to the Gulf of California either. However, water runs down hill, and if water gets used before water gets to the ocean, then little water gets to the ocean.

Like everything else, the local large cities don't want people to know that the water comes down the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range on its way to the ocean just like water does in the west. The difference being, in the west the water runs down the mountains primarily in exposed rivers because of the natural uplift of the rocks. Toward the east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, water flows in primarily underground aquifers because of the lava flows and cinder rocks forming layers which the water flows through. More specifically, it is the lava cinder piles which allow water to flow freely. Cinder piles are large lava chuncks blown up and rains down as rocks of lava. They pile up, and when covered by the smaller ash and lava flow, make a nice aquifer for water to pass through.

As dry as it looks, there should be water under Wild Horse Acres every where. At least, so say the local drillers. Water snows on top of them thar mountains as snow and rain just like every other mountain. That snow, when it melts, must go somewhere. Melted snow, as water, goes down hill toward the ocean. In this case, the Gulf of California. Since there are only a few exposed rivers, it stands to reason that water flows underground being a good probability. Reno, Sparks, and Las Vegas use a lot of water. So much water goes to feed the cities and agriculture that not much water is getting to the Gulf.

Yep, it is exactly the same operation with water as with power. As BLM land makes up a huge portion of the land which the water runs under, there is not much demand on the aquifer system. However, if one wanted to grow things in this area, they will need water. Agriculture can put a big demand on an underground aquifer water systems. Big cities who need this water will take a dim view of some poor farmer using their self proclaimed water.

Besides that, there is Eagle Lake, Honey Lake, Pyramid Lake, and a couple small lakes which contain water year around in this area. If the whole place is so dry, then what feeds these lakes their water?

The well on the property was certified in 1956 to pump five hundred (500GPM) gallons per minute of water sustaned at a depth of 125 feet.

Drilling a well is the traditional method of obtaining water in the area. Several water wells exist at a distance of about 3 miles. The odds are a 1956 water well has pretty much had it.

Generally speaking, and without scientific proof, Wild Horse Acres has water at around 200 to 400 feet. Potable water is almost everywhere. 16,000,000 acre feet of potable water is defined by the government as the Honey Lake underground aquifer. Referenced by: The State of California, The Resources Agency, Department of Water Resources, Bulletin No. 118, California's Ground Water.

This aquifer water system was created by lava flows. What happens is dirt builds up over time. Dirt just gets deeper and deeper. Rocks and the such get trapped in the dirt. Among other things, lava ash is deposited on the land too. Then one day, a major eruption of the local volcanos occurs. Although, for practical purposes in respect to a humans live, Lassen, Shasta and other volcanos dot the area. Every couple hundred thousand years, one of these volcanos blows it's top. Lava flows over the land. The lava cools to rock sometimes many feet thick. The thickness being unimportant. What happens is a layering affect. The cinders topped by ash, dirt, and rock underground are porus to water. Water can travel through it easily. The weight on top and the streangth of the system allows a high water pressure.

Depending on the length of time the water has been flowing in the layer and what minerals are present, determine if the water is potable or not. There are many layers under this property that support water flow. One about 200-400 feet down, just happens to allow a lot of fresh water to flow. There are other fresh water flows around 400, 500, and 650 feet.

The typical drilling fees for water wells in this area are $20 per foot. There are several qualified water drillers in Lassen County. For more information on available underground water, you should consult them.

Many of the drillers will tell you that there is a possibility a water well can be dry. This is true. But a dry water well is due to a lava sink where the driller drilled into solid rock where there should be an aquifer layer. This is very possible. Happens all the time. However, several drillers have found that 10 pounds of gelignite works wonders at fracturing one of these blockages. 200 pounds of the explosive, and one could probably walk all the way down to water.

Wild Horse Acres is primarily a dry lake basin. It has been a dry lake basin for hundreds of thousands of years. There is very little steep terrain. This is why some of the layers are mud and marine in nature. Wild Horse Acres has some Kitty Litter Acreage too. Kitty Litter because diatomatious earth typically makes up kitty litter..

Water has to go somewhere. What surface water that does not flow underground, flows down from the mountains and froms vast basin of shallow shallow water lakes. Wild Horse Acres is one of those shallow water basins. The majority of land which Wild Horse Acres comprises of is in a 100 year flood zone. Unlike an arroyo where water can rush through the area, Wild Horse Acres is a water capacitor. Water temporally amass in the area until it can either run off in small shallow creeks or it simply evaporates. At any rate, Wild Horse Acres is in a 100 year flood zone, guaranteed.

More importantly, 1600 acres of Wild Horse Acres is the capacitor for most the surrounding area. As snow melts or rain water runs off, Wild Horse Acres fills up as a very shallow water lake. This lake is about an inch or two of water deep.

This causes another unique situation. Silt builds up on the floor of the capacitor. This is a very fine silt. When the water freezes the silt freezes too. This forms a barrier so water does not permeate into the soil. Plowing from time to time would solve this problem, but there is no one there to plow, so the water makes a lake with frozen water in it. The act of freezing the silt further breaks the silt into finer and finer pieces. When it warms, the water permeates the silt making a very mucky mud. This mud is also unique in that it sticks to everything. This is how the area got to be known as mud flats. Furthermore, one mineral which is in the mud flat has diatomatious earth. Diatomatious earth is little diatoms which make the mud the consistancy of cement. And, it dries like cement too. However, the worst part of this mineral is that as a mineral it has value so one does not want to plow it up.

When the area does dry out, the mud turns to concrete. When this happens, the water under the mud does not evaporate out. Thus, the mud stays just under the surface for a long period of time. As such, it is not safe to drive on until it completely drys. Again, plowing up the area will help solve this problem too. The big problem is the sticky mucky mud can stop a D9 cat. Thus, plowing must be done when the land is sufficiently dry enough to support the weight of a tractor.

This all seems very negative, however, it has a positive side. First, if one wanted to use the land for parking cars in August and September, they could get a hundred thousand cars parked on the land because this is a flat top parking lot when it drys out to a depth of a foot or two. Secondly, proper conditioning of the land can alleviate this problem. Third, building a two foot dike between the inlet and outlet of the property would also vastly improve the utilization of the land. Forth, but more importantly, one can capture the water and use later.

To drain the property, one would need to excavate a depression in the land. This depression should be about 50 to 100 feet deep in its center. A gentle slop would work well utilizing about 100 acres for this depression. Taking the dirt out of the depression and depositing on the rest of the property would also raise the land too. Next, run furrows along the property which drain into the depression. This would capture the water. It would also drain the high land. It would be better if one used plastic pipes in the drains but it is not all that necessary.

The point being, there is a lot of water available. All one would need to do is capture the water in their own reservoir or drill a water well.

Wild Horse Acres.