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Water in Pinal County
What the state and federal record says about water across Pinal County. Each figure names the agency it came from.
Can I drill a well here?
Yes, an exempt well, with Active Management Area limits on much of the county
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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.
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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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Near a city water main, in an older AMA
No exempt well if any part of the land is within 100 feet of a designated city provider's water mains, unless ADWR grants an exemption. The 100 feet is a survey question.
- Active Management Areas here: Phoenix AMA, Pinal AMA, Tucson 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 Pinal County
- 1,333exempt wells registered since 2015
- 1,721production wells of every kind since 2015
- 600feet, the typical exempt well depth
- 280feet down to water, typically
ADWR wells registry Decided by: ADWR, on the notice of intention to drill.
- 16,404 Wells on record across 5,377 square miles
- 580 ft Well depth middle value across 1,603 of 5,377 square miles
- 239 ft Depth to water middle value across 155 of 5,377 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Pinal 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
5,377 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.
Much of this county is inside an Active Management Area
70% of the county sits in Pinal AMA. Inside an AMA the state limits new groundwater pumping and a subdivision must prove a hundred-year assured water supply before it can sell lots. Outside one, almost none of that applies, and which side of the line a property falls on changes what can be built there.
ADWR Active Management Areas 1 of 9 counties
70% here 1st of 9 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water rights here are still being decided in court
100% of the county falls inside a general stream adjudication that has run for decades and is not finished. Until it ends, who holds what is formally unsettled.
Arizona general stream adjudications 1 of 14 counties
100% here 1st of 14 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 580 feet deep, against 332 ft in the median county, across 16,404 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 1 of 15 counties
580 ft here 1st of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A large share of this county cannot be bought at all
35% of the county is State Trust land, against 10% in the median county. Arizona holds nine million acres in trust for its schools and does not sell them on request: the land is leased, and it changes hands only at public auction when the Land Department chooses to offer it. The practical effect on a neighbouring parcel is that the ground next door stays as it is, which cuts both ways.
Arizona State Land Department 1 of 15 counties
35% here 1st of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water systems here are under enforcement
14% of the county is served by a system with a formal EPA or ADEQ enforcement action on record, against 3% in the median county. An enforcement action is the step after a violation that was not fixed.
EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System 2 of 15 counties
14% here 2nd of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A lot of this county is land with nothing built on it
43% of the county holds parcels with no situs address, meaning no building with a number on the door. This is raw land country, which is the market, and it also means few neighbours to share a road, a line or a well with.
County assessor parcel records 3 of 15 counties
43% here 3rd of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Wells here may be treated as pumping the river
0.5% of the county lies in a subflow zone, where a well is legally drawing surface water and falls under the adjudication rather than under groundwater rules.
Arizona general stream adjudications 4 of 9 counties
0.5% here 4th of 9 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A lot of this county is in a mapped floodplain
34% of the county intersects a FEMA special flood hazard area. In Arizona that is usually a wash rather than a river, dry for most of the year and the reason the insurance is required anyway.
FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer 4 of 15 counties
34% here 4th of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water sampled here comes back over a federal limit more often than it should
7.2% of groundwater samples in this county exceeded a federal drinking water standard, across 8,205 samples. In Arizona the usual culprit is arsenic, which is natural, invisible, and a treatment cost rather than a reason not to buy.
Water Quality Portal (USGS and EPA) 4 of 15 counties
7.2% here 4th of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
The water here stands a long way below the surface
The water table sits 239 feet down in the typical square mile. 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 5 of 15 counties
239 ft here 5th of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Part of this county is wildland urban interface
19% intersects the wildland urban interface, against 9% in the median county. That is an insurance question before it is a water one.
AZGS earth fissure and subsidence mapping 2 of 15 counties
19% here 2nd 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
1,142 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 3 of 9 counties
1,142 here 3rd 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
2.3% of this county sits inside a decreed area, under 2 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 5 of 10 counties
2.3% here 5th of 10 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Ground here has cracked open where the water was pumped out
4,677 confirmed earth fissures and 1,142 mapped subsidence features. Fissures open when an aquifer is drawn down and the land above settles unevenly. They swallow fences, roads and foundations, and no ordinary policy covers them.
4,677 here The bar is the whole county and the fill is this county's share.
Buying here can come with a CAGRD bill attached
4.8% of the county is inside a CAGRD service area. Membership means an annual charge that replenishes the groundwater a property pumps, it runs with the land, and it rises.
4.8% here The bar is the whole county and the fill is this county's share.
The irrigation water here is already spoken for
9,910 grandfathered irrigation rights are recorded in this county. Inside an AMA, ground that was already being irrigated in 1980 kept the right to go on doing it and no new irrigation right can be created. New ground does not get water by asking for it.
9,910 here The bar is the whole county and the fill is this county's share.
The water table here has risen over twenty years
The median monitored well is 1.3 feet higher than it was twenty years ago, across 288 wells. That is unusual in Arizona and it is usually the result of a surface water supply arriving and pumping easing off rather than of rain.
1.3 ft here The bar is the whole county and the fill is this county's share.
This county is being platted into subdivisions
3,499 platted subdivisions are recorded here. Inside an AMA each one had to prove a hundred-year assured water supply before a lot could be sold; outside one, it did not, and the developer only had to disclose that fact.
3,499 here The bar is the whole county and the fill is this county's share.
For one parcel in Pinal 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 Pinal County