ISWS
Provides Resources for Irrigation Reporting
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[May 13, 2015]
CHAMPAIGN
- Starting this growing season, farm irrigators who use high
capacity wells or intakes are required to report their water use.
The Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) has created a website to
assist irrigators with this mandatory reporting process, according
to Steve Wilson, ISWS groundwater hydrologist.
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An amendment to the Illinois Water Use Act in 2010 gave
agricultural irrigators five years to comply. A high capacity
well/intake is defined as a single point of withdrawal or a
series of points that together pump more than 70 gallons per
minute.
Irrigators can estimate their water withdrawals using a method
approved by the ISWS if their water withdrawals are not metered.
One method uses the number of inches applied times the number of
acres (number of inches applied x acres x 27,150 gallons per
acre-inch). The second method is the number of hours that the
irrigation system runs multiplied by the gallons per minute plus
acres (hours ran x rated gallons per minute of system x 60
min/hour).
These methods are explained on a website with resources to help
farmers with the reporting process. Provided are printable and
fillable forms for recordkeeping and calculations and a video
tutorial on how to locate GPS coordinates of well locations
using Google Maps. The website address is: http://www.isws.illinois.edu/gws/iwip/irrigation/
Wilson noted that farmers should gather the information during
the growing season and report the results in the fall.
“Understanding water withdrawals and how they relate to changes
in water levels in wells and effects on streamflow is critical
to understanding water availability, aquifer yield, and
information regarding the sustainability of a water supply,
Wilson said.” “Collecting this information is necessary to
answer basic questions about how future/additional water use
might affect wells and water supplies, as well as in determining
what areas are more at risk to have limited water resources.”
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Wilson also noted that the act requires that pumpage information be
submitted to the ISWS for every high capacity well and intake,
regardless of use. Agricultural irrigators were given five years to
comply, while all other high capacity well users should have been
reporting since 2010.
For questions about the reporting process, contact Steve Wilson or
Karen Bridges at (217) 300-4731.
[Lisa Sheppard, Illinois Water
Survey]
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