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Water in Graham County
What the state and federal record says about water across Graham 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
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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.
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Inside an Active Management Area
An exempt well is allowed, but use other than household and stock watering is capped at 10 acre-feet a year.
- Active Management Areas here: Willcox AMA.
- 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 Graham County
- 314exempt wells registered since 2015
- 472production wells of every kind since 2015
- 180feet, the typical exempt well depth
- 72feet down to water, typically
ADWR wells registry Decided by: ADWR, on the notice of intention to drill.
- 6,624 Wells on record across 4,683 square miles
- 170 ft Well depth middle value across 720 of 4,683 square miles
- 61 ft Depth to water middle value across 21 of 4,683 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Graham 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
4,683 surveyed sections, drawn 2 by 2 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.
The water table here has dropped a long way in twenty years
The median monitored well is -16 feet lower than it was twenty years ago, against -2 ft in the median county, across 33 wells. A well drilled to yesterday's depth may need deepening.
ADWR groundwater level change 1 of 15 counties
-16 ft here 1st of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Soil here holds water at the surface rather than letting it through
100% of sections have hydrologic group D soil, against 74% in the median county, the slowest-infiltrating class. Good for a stock pond, bad for a septic field and for well recharge.
USDA SSURGO soil survey 1 of 12 counties
100% here 1st of 12 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Most wells here have no record of what the drill went through
73% of wells on record have no drill log. The well exists on paper and nothing says what formation it hit, at what depth, or what the water was like. A neighbour's log is the cheapest evidence there is about your own ground, and here there usually is not one.
ADWR wells registry 2 of 15 counties
73% 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
79% of the 33 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 4 of 15 counties
79% here 4th of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
The aquifer under this county is dropping, even where the county's own wells are quiet
The basin this county draws from is down -17 feet over twenty years, against -1 ft in the median county. A basin is bigger than a county and the water does not respect the line: pumping on the far side of it reaches here.
ADWR groundwater level change 1 of 15 counties
-17 ft here 1st of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
The land here is sinking where the aquifer was drawn down
409 mapped subsidence features and no confirmed fissures yet. Subsidence is what precedes a fissure, and it is worth knowing about before it becomes one.
AZGS earth fissure and subsidence mapping 5 of 9 counties
409 here 5th of 9 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
1.9% of this county sits inside a decreed area, under 4 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 6 of 10 counties
1.9% here 6th of 10 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Much of this county is tribal land
38% of the county is tribal land, where water rights are federally reserved and settled separately from the state system.
Arizona general stream adjudications 6 of 13 counties
38% here 6th of 13 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Graham 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 Graham County