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Water in Apache County
What the state and federal record says about water across Apache County. Each figure names the agency it came from.
Can I drill a well here?
Yes, an exempt well of 35 gallons a minute or less
-
Outside an Active Management Area
An exempt well (35 gallons a minute or less) is allowed for any use but irrigation, with no yearly cap. Domestic use includes growing plants on under two acres.
- Every well needs a notice of intention to drill filed with ADWR and a licensed driller. On five acres or less the county health authority also signs off the site plan, and no well may sit within 100 feet of a septic system.
What has actually been permitted in Apache County
- 588exempt wells registered since 2015
- 820production wells of every kind since 2015
- 310feet, the typical exempt well depth
- 175feet down to water, typically
ADWR wells registry Decided by: ADWR, on the notice of intention to drill.
- 7,710 Wells on record across 10,340 square miles
- 318 ft Well depth middle value across 1,124 of 10,340 square miles
- 93 ft Depth to water middle value across 21 of 10,340 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Apache County by the square mile
Each figure below is one number for the whole county. The map places the same records on the ground, square mile by square mile.
Wells on record. Every well ADWR has a record of, exempt and non-exempt together.
- none on record (bare ground)
- up to 1
- 2
- 3 to 4
- 5 to 10
- 11 to 40
- over 40
10,340 surveyed sections, drawn 3 by 3 miles to a square. The shading is scaled against every county in Arizona, so a color means the same thing on any of these pages. The outline is the county boundary from the Census Bureau: ground inside the line and outside the shading is ground nobody has drilled, filed on or addressed. Aerial imagery is the USGS National Map.
FEMA has never determined the flood risk for most of this county
100% of the county is FEMA Zone D, which means undetermined hazard, against 56% in the median county. Nobody has looked. That is a different thing from being studied and coming back outside the floodplain, and a lender or an insurer will treat the two differently.
FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer 1 of 15 counties
100% here 1st of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Wells here come in weak
The typical well makes 15 gallons a minute, against 20 gpm in the median county. A household needs roughly 5 to 10, so this is liveable and it will not support irrigation, livestock at scale, or a second home on the same well.
ADWR wells registry 2 of 15 counties
15 gpm here 2nd of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Most monitored wells here are falling rather than recovering
80% of the 30 wells ADWR has monitored for twenty years are declining rather than recovering. This counts wells, not feet: a county can be losing only a foot a year and still have almost every well in it pointing the same way, which is what says the drawdown is regional rather than one heavy pumper.
ADWR groundwater level change 3 of 15 counties
80% here 3rd of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Wells here have to go a long way down
The typical well is 318 feet deep, across 7,710 wells on record. Drilling is priced by the foot and the casing with it, so depth is the first line of any estimate for putting water on raw land, and it is the number a seller is least likely to volunteer.
ADWR wells registry 9 of 15 counties
318 ft here 9th of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Much of this county is tribal land
67% of the county is tribal land, where water rights are federally reserved and settled separately from the state system.
Arizona general stream adjudications 2 of 13 counties
67% here 2nd of 13 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A court has already adjudicated the water over part of this county
4.6% of this county sits inside a decreed area, under 5 mapped court decrees. An adjudication is a court deciding who owns what water on a stream and in what order, and once entered it governs. On an adjudicated stream the decree, rather than a well permit, is what says whether there is water to use.
ADWR decreed area boundaries 4 of 10 counties
4.6% here 4th of 10 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Apache County
The figures above describe the whole county. The Land, Development and Rights reports answer for one parcel: what water conveys, whether a household well needs only a notice, and whether the county requires an adequate water supply to split it. Each answer gives the evidence within a mile and who decides.
Search an address in Apache County