Arizona Water Conservation Factsheets ... Did You Know?
Conserving Domestic Well Water Helps Protect the Water Table
Wells draw water from aquifers, which are underground layers of rock and sediment, saturated with water. The line between the ground’s unsaturated and saturated zones is called the water table. The water table can rise and fall naturally over time due to fluctuations in weather and climate, but human activity, including pumping water from wells, can also influence the water level.
A pump pulls water from the ground in much the same way that a straw helps people drink liquid from a glass full of ice. The suction created by the pump draws water up and out, which lowers the surrounding water table, creating a conical unsaturated area, known as a cone of depression, with its tip at the pump. When wells pump water out of an aquifer faster than the water is replenished, cones of depression can expand and overlap, lowering the water table over large areas, even affecting nearby surface streams and other wells.
If the water table falls below the level of a well’s pump, the pump may suck up air bubbles and sediment, which affects well-water quality and can damage the pump and associated plumping. Using conservation techniques to decrease the rate of withdrawal is far less expensive than replacing well infrastructure.
To learn more, check out our Arizona Water Conservation Factsheet on Domestic Well User Water Conservation.