West Texas Bolsons Aquifersinteractive map | cross-section

Summary

The West Texas Bolsons Aquifer is a minor aquifer located in several basins, or bolsons, in Far West Texas. The aquifer occurs as water-bearing, basin-fill deposits as much as 3,000 feet thick. It is composed of eroded materials that vary depending on the mountains bordering the basins and the manner in which the sediments were deposited. Sediments range from the finegrained silt and clay of lake deposits to the coarse-grained volcanic rock and limestone of alluvial fans. Freshwater saturated thickness averages about 580 feet.

Groundwater quality varies depending on the basin, ranging from freshwater, containing less than 1,000 milligrams per liter of total disdsolved solids, to slightly to moderately saline water, containing between 1,000 and 4,000 milligrams per liter of total dissolved solids.

Groundwater is used for irrigation and livestock throughout the area and for municipal supply in the cities of Presidio, Sierra Blanca, Valentine, and Van Horn. From the 1950s to the present, water levels have been in decline in the West Texas Bolsons Aquifer, with the most significant declines occurring south of Van Horn in the Lobo Flats area and to the east in the Wild Horse Basin area.

Reports