Do you have a well?

cj2015

9 years ago

Hi AZ gardeners, looking for comments from anyone who has their own well - considering the current drought, are you worried about your well going dry, or having to drill much deeper?
My husband and I are thinking of retiring to horse property somewhere in the Phoenix area (Surprise, Cave Creek, Wickenburg maybe) and we'd like to be able to ride our horses onto trails off our property. Obviously this means living on the outskirts of town, and most of the properties we see online seem to have well water. But I'm also a big gardener. I'm willing to scale it all back to just my vegetable garden but I have to be able to do some grubbing in the dirt or I'll go nuts. Considering the news reports I see, I'm nervous that we'll move and I won't be able to do anything outside except provide water for the horses.
Comments?

Comments (3)

v8vega
9 years ago
Anything is possible. If you own a well in an "Active Management Area", the rules on wells may change because of the recharge process. If the table drops too quick, they will take action.
As far as going dry, you will need to know all the specs on the well to make an educated guess if you will ever need to deepen it.
I have a well on my property in Cochise county. One reason why I bought the land down there was because it's not in an A.M.A. & has quality water unlike the hard stuff around here.
Fascist_Nation
9 years ago
Set your property up to capture rain and use greywater (though that can't be used in vegetable beds). Divert to plants. Conserve with heavy organic mulching.

If you buy your water what makes you think their wells won't go dry? Also some properties have bot well and muni/private water source. My next door neighbor did until the current occupant was forced to sign his well rights away by government as a condition of his purchase.

This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Wed, May 7, 14 at 16:11
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aztreelvr
9 years ago
As a general rule, the closer you get to mountains surrounding our valley, the more shallow the aquifer is. That means that any wells in those areas are limited in how deep they can be drilled before reaching the bottom. In the even that the aquifer level dropped significantly, the shallow wells would be the first to fail.

Arizona has planned for drought for decades and water providers (municipal and private) in active management areas must reach 'safe yield' by 2025. That is they cannot pump more water from the ground than they can replenish by recharge. This is law and also why you see increased use in reclaimed water, robust conservation programs, recharge facilities like Tres Rios, Gilbert Riparian Preserve, Chandler's Veterans Oasis Park and a myriad of injection wells that return water to the aquifer around our valley.

All wells are permitted by the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR). They should be able to answer all your questions about wells in the area you plan to call home.

The Arizona Municipal Water Users Association has great information on water issues. Visit them at www.amwua.org

Here is a link that might be useful: Well drilling in Arizona