Arizona ยท county water record
Water in Santa Cruz County
What the state and federal record says about water here, before you look at any particular piece of ground. Every finding names the agency it came from.
- 5,199 Wells on record across 1,272 square miles
- 225 ft Well depth middle value across 566 of 1,272 square miles
- 42 ft Depth to water middle value across 51 of 1,272 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Santa Cruz County by the square mile
Every finding on this page is one number for the whole county. These are the same records placed on the ground they came from.
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
1,272 surveyed sections, drawn one square mile to a square. The shading is scaled against every county in Arizona, so a colour 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.
Stands out
A lot of this county is in a mapped floodplain
57% of the county intersects a FEMA special flood hazard area, against 25% across the state. 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 1 of 15 counties
57% here 1st of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Much of this county is inside an Active Management Area
56% of the county sits in Santa Cruz 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 2 of 9 counties
56% here 2nd of 9 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Almost every well here is an exempt domestic well
65% of wells are exempt, meaning 35 gallons a minute or less for a household, against 52% across the state. Exempt wells are quick to permit and they are also the first to go dry when a larger neighbour draws the aquifer down, because they carry no protected right against it.
ADWR wells registry 2 of 15 counties
65% here 2nd of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Wells here come in weak
The typical well makes 15 gallons a minute, against 20 gpm across the state. 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.
Worth knowing
Water systems here are under enforcement
10% of the county is served by a system with a formal EPA or ADEQ enforcement action on record. An enforcement action is the step after a violation that was not fixed.
EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System 3 of 15 counties
10% here 3rd of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Most of this county is wildland urban interface
20% intersects the wildland urban interface, against 9% across the state. That is an insurance question before it is a water one.
AZGS earth fissure and subsidence mapping 1 of 15 counties
20% here 1st of 15 One bar per Arizona county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
The irrigation water here is already spoken for
528 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.
528 here The bar is the whole county and the fill is this county's share.
This is the county. Your question is probably a property.
None of the above is about a particular parcel. Water is not parcel-shaped: the ditch serving the ground runs through other people's land and the senior right that curtails it sits somewhere else, which is why the state files by survey section rather than by property. Check an address and you get the square mile it sits in, with the wells, the rights and what was actually diverted.
Check a property in Santa Cruz County