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Water in Mohave County
What the state and federal record says about water across Mohave 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 Mohave County
- 1,534exempt wells registered since 2015
- 1,880production wells of every kind since 2015
- 420feet, the typical exempt well depth
- 245feet down to water, typically
ADWR wells registry Decided by: ADWR, on the notice of intention to drill.
- 15,729 Wells on record across 13,609 square miles
- 398 ft Well depth middle value across 1,833 of 13,609 square miles
- 372 ft Depth to water middle value across 65 of 13,609 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Mohave 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
13,609 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.
The water here stands a long way below the surface
The water table sits 372 feet down in the typical square mile, against 150 ft in the median county. That is not the depth of the hole, it is where the water stands in it, and it sets the pump, the lift and the power bill for as long as the well runs.
ADWR groundwater level change 1 of 15 counties
372 ft 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 12 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 1 of 15 counties
12 gpm here 1st of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
The water table here is falling faster than it used to
Twenty years of monitoring show -1.5 feet of change and the last ten show -2.2. Half the record has produced more than half the drop, so the decline is steepening rather than levelling off. A well drilled to a depth that worked ten years ago has less margin than the twenty-year figure suggests.
ADWR groundwater level change 2 of 10 counties
-0.1 ft/yr here 2nd of 10 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 398 feet deep, across 15,729 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 6 of 15 counties
398 ft here 6th 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
72% of the 99 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 8 of 15 counties
72% here 8th of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Parcels here are large
The typical parcel is 120 acres. Size is the reason the water question is worth asking: a large parcel with no water is a large parcel you cannot do anything with.
County assessor parcel records 4 of 15 counties
120 ac here 4th of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Mohave 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 Mohave County