Welcome

Did you know there are 150,000 wells in Arizona, including 100,000 exempt domestic wells? Cochise County alone has nearly 10,000 domestic wells. Domestic wells are largely unregulated by federal, state, and local agencies, and up to now the owners of these wells have been largely on their own in maintaining their wells, monitoring the conditions of the aquifer, and making sure the water is safe to drink.The University of Arizona has done something about that. Two water research centers—the Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA) and the Water Resources Research Center—have joined forces with Cochise County Cooperative Extension to provide information and services for well owners. To start, we offered a Saturday morning workshop for well owners in summer 2008 that drew a standing-room-only crowd. Since then, we’ve developed additional print and web resources, including this website.

We hope you find this website informative. Here you’ll discover:

• information on our research project involving well owners in Cochise County and how you can participate. Data we collect from this study will be kept confidential, and those who participate will receive free water meters and tipping-bucket rain gauges;
• an online version of Well Owners Guide, containing a wealth of information on how wells work, maintaining your well, advice on periodic water quality testing, and much more;
• a link to Arizona Wells, a web service that lets you search for information on nearby wells, including new wells, depth-to-groundwater, pumpage, and water quality test results; and
• a new subscription service that will automatically email you quarterly updates on nearby well drilling, depth to groundwater, and local water quality test results.