| Arizona |
Geographic Information Services "More than Maps" |
| Quick links to: ADWR Home Other Arizona State Agencies Arizona GIS Sites | Arizona Well Registry CD-ROM
| |
Welcome to the Arizona Well Registry distribution database!
This database contains the most frequently requested information on all of the wells registered in Arizona. You can use this database to look up the location of each well and information about the well type, depth, water level, owner, uses and age and other details. The information for the Well Registry is collected by the Arizona Department of Water Resources and stored in two large, complex database systems:
| Type | Software | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| SQL | Oracle | Stores the description of every well |
| GIS | ARC/INFO | Stores the location of every well |
This CD-ROM product contains information from both systems that has been consolidated, simplified and merged into one large table. None of the original information has been changed; it has simply been reformatted for greater convenience and ease of use. This CD-ROM does not duplicate all of the information in the Oracle database; just the most frequently requested information.
Every new well is required by law to be registered with the state. Wells are registered to assure that they meet minimum construction standards, are not located too close to septic systems and do not adversely impact neighboring wells. Since 1980 when the law went into effect ADWR has registered over 130,000 wells and receives between 400 and 600 applications to drill new wells each month. This CD-ROM will be updated regularly as new wells are registered.
This database is designed to be used with most database and GIS software.
| Projection: | Universal Transverse Mercator Zone 12 |
| Coordinates: | Meters, single precision |
| Datum: | North American Datum 1927 |
In most cases no conversion is necessary and this database can be used directly from the CD-ROM or copied to your hard drive for faster performance.
To copy this database to your hard drive:
There are several important cautions that you need to be aware of while using this database:
The main well registry database table ADWRWELL.DBF is over 75 mb. in size. Make sure your hardware and software can handle files this large. This file is too large for many spreadsheet programs.
All information on this CD-ROM is Copyright 1999 by the State of Arizona, Department of Water Resources. You may use and share this database freely but cannot claim or imply that this information is your own. Nor can you alter this information in any way and then claim or imply that it is ours.
This information may be incomplete because well registration, while required, is voluntary and the state does not have the resources to go out and look for unregistered wells. There are probably many unregistered wells in existence that are not included in this database. Because their construction has not been reviewed and approved great care should be taken drinking or using the water from any unregistered well. When the law went into effect in 1980 any well in existence before 1980 also had to be registered. However many of these older well records may contain incomplete information in this database. Wells located on Indian Reservations are not required to be registered and, as a consequence, very few are.
All well information is been reported to ADWR by either the well owner or the well driller and has not been verified by the state. Therefore, the State of Arizona and the Arizona Department of Water Resources does not guarantee the accuracy of any of this information. Because we have no way of knowing how you intend to use this information no warranty of any kind is expressed or even implied regarding it's suitability or usefulness for any purpose you may have in mind. We will not assume any liability for damages resulting from your use or misuse of this information.
The well locations in this database will not match the actual well locations on the ground. The positional accuracy is limited because the well locations are reported to ADWR by township, range, section and section subdivision down to the nearest ten acres (quarter-quarter-quarter section). In order to map these locations every section in the state has been subdivided into 64 ten-acre cells, 16 forty-acre cells and 4 one hundred sixty-acre cells with a label point assigned to the center of each cell. These center points are then used to represent the approximate locations of the wells. There can be more than one well on a location point because all wells within the same ten-acre cell are assigned to the same label point. See the WellFinder Example view in the ArcView project file for an illustration of how these points are located in a typical section.
Some wells do not have corresponding location points. These are found in the MISSING.DBF table. Many simply have no township-range locations in the original database. Some have township-range locations in areas where there are no township or section polygons to subdivide in the GIS database (such as on Indian Reservations). A few require corrections to the location points themselves. In all of these unlocated wells account for only about 0.05% of the entire Well Registry database.
Annual reported well pumpage amounts are reported only for wells within groundwater basins that have been designated as Active Management Areas or Irrigation Non-expansion Areas with a pump capacity greater than 35 gallons per minute. Annual reports are required to be submitted by the well owners by March 31 of the following year.
The actual well driller's logs are available in paper form only. They can be examined and copied at ADWR's main office in Phoenix. See the contact information at the end of this page.
ADWR actually has two different well databases which are frequently confused; The Well Registry and the Ground Water Site Inventory (GWSI). The GWSI database is not on this CD-ROM but will be included in a later edition. The Well Registry and GWSI databases were created separately for different purposes.
| Well Registry | GWSI | |
|---|---|---|
Number of wells | >130,000 | ~40,000 |
| Level of detail | Generally less detailed but includes the amount pumped annually for certain wells | Has more detail about the construction method, screen intervals and location of each well and includes more recently measured water levels |
| Accuracy of the information | Unverified | Verified by ADWR field measurements. |
Note: *Only about 10,000 GWSI wells are cross-referenced to the Well Registry
| No Color | ESRI shapefile file sets |
| Stand-alone database tables | |
| Documentation files | |
| ArcView Project files |
| FILE NAME | FILE FORMAT | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| access.htm | HTML text | Documentation Web page - How to use Microsoft Access |
| acre10.dbf | dBaseIV database table | WellFinder example section 10-acre polygon attributes |
| acre10.shp | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example section 10-acre polygons |
| acre10.shx | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example section 10-acre polygon index |
| acre40.dbf | dBaseIV database table | WellFinder example section 40-acre polygon attributes |
| acre40.shp | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example section 40-acre polygons |
| acre40.shx | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example section 40-acre polygon index |
| acre160.dbf | dBaseIV database table | WellFinder example section 160-acre polygon attributes |
| acre160.shp | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example section 160-acre polygons |
| acre160.shx | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example section 160-acre polygon index |
| adwrwell.dbf | dBaseIV database table | Main well information table & location attributes |
| adwrwell.htm | HTML text | Main database documentation Web page |
| adwrwell.shp | ESRI shapefile | Well location points |
| adwrwell.shx | ESRI shapefile | Well location points index |
| arizona.dbf | dBaseIV database table | Arizona state boundary polygon attributes |
| arizona.shp | ESRI shapefile | Arizona state boundary polygon |
| arizona.shx | ESRI shapefile | Arizona state boundary polygon index |
| county.dbf | dBaseIV database table | County boundary polygon attributes |
| county.shp | ESRI shapefile | County boundary polygons |
| county.shx | ESRI shapefile | County boundary polygon index |
| driller.dbf | dBaseIV database table | Driller licenses lookup table |
| drive_c.apr | Text | ArcView 3.0a Project for files on drive C: |
| drive_d.apr | Text | ArcView 3.0a Project for files on drive D: |
| drive_e.apr | Text | ArcView 3.0a Project for files on drive E: |
| dwrbasin.dbf | dBaseIV database table | Groundwater basin polygon attributes |
| dwrbasin.shp | ESRI shapefile | Groundwater basin polygons |
| dwrbasin.shx | ESRI shapefile | Groundwater basin polygon index |
| example.dbf | dBaseIV database table | WellFinder example section polygon attributes |
| example.shp | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example section polygon |
| example.shx | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example section polygon index |
| missing.dbf | dBaseIV database table | Wells that have no location points |
| pumpyear.dbf | dBaseIV database table | Annual well pumpage amounts |
| readme.txt | Text | Basic instructions for using this CD-ROM |
| subbasin.dbf | dBaseIV database table | Groundwater subbasin polygon attributes |
| subbasin.shp | ESRI shapefile | Groundwater subbasin polygons |
| subbasin.shx | ESRI shapefile | Groundwater subbasin polygon index |
| watershd.dbf | dBaseIV database table | Surface watershed boundary attributes |
| watershd.shp | ESRI shapefile | Surface watershed boundary polygons |
| watershd.shx | ESRI shapefile | Surface watershed boundary polygon index |
| wellfind.dbf | dBaseIV database table | WellFinder example location point attributes |
| wellfind.shp | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example location points |
| wellfind.shx | ESRI shapefile | WellFinder example location point index |
While most of the database tables are self-explanatory the three tables shown below require more explanation.
NOTE: The MISSING.DBF table is almost identical to ADWRWELL.DBF. It contains all of the wells that have no location points in the GIS database and are therefore not included in the ADWRWELL.SHP shapefile. All of the fields are the same in MISSING.DBF as in ADWRWELL.DBF except the AREA, PERIMETER, POINTORDER and POINTLABEL fields are absent (because it is not a shapefile).
| Field Name | Size | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| AREA | 4 | N | Not used; vestige of original ARC cover point attribute table. |
| PERIMETER | 4 | N | Not used; vestige of original ARC cover point attribute table. |
| POINTORDER | 6 | N | Point order sequence number assigned automatically when the location point was generated. |
| POINTLABEL | 6 | N | Point label assigned manually when the point was generated. |
| PROGRAM | 2 | C | ADWR program number (55 = Well Registry). Redundant but familiar prefix "55-" is used in some reports. |
| REGISTRYID | 6 | C | *Primary key* Unique well registry identification number (with leading zero). Grouped into ranges 080000 - 089999 Wells drilled after 06/12/1980 500000 - 599999 Wells drilled after 06/12/1980 600000 - 699999 Wells drilled before 06/12/1980 800000 - 899999 Wells drilled before 06/12/1980 but registered after 06/12/1980 Matches REGISTRYID in the PUMPYEAR.DBF table. |
| COUNTY | 10 | C | County name |
| WATERSHED | 21 | C | Surface watershed name |
| BASIN | 30 | C | Groundwater basin name |
| SUBBASIN | 25 | C | Groundwater subbasin name |
| TOWNSHIP | 2.1 | N | Township 1 - 41 north or 1 - 24 south. There are a few half townships (designated with a .5) in Arizona. |
| NORTHSOUTH | 1 | C | Township direction N = North, S = South |
| RANGE | 2.1 | N | Range 1 - 31 east or 1 - 24 west. There are a few half ranges (designated with a .5) in Arizona. |
| EASTWEST | 1 | C | Range direction E = East, W = West |
| SECTION | 2 | N | Section number 1 - 36 |
| ACRE160 | 2 | C | Quarter section subdivision (160 acres) |
| ACRE40 | 2 | C | Quarter-quarter section subdivision (40 acres) |
| ACRE10 | 2 | C | Quarter-quarter-quarter section subdivision (10 acres) |
| UTMX | 6.3 | N | UTM Zone 12 X (easting) coordinate in meters of the center of the smallest section subdivision |
| UTMY | 7.3 | N | UTM Zone 12 Y (northing) coordinate in meters of the center of the smallest section subdivision |
| WELLTYPE | 30 | C | General well administrative category. There can be more than one use for a well. See WELLUSE1 and WELLUSE2 for a more definitive description. |
| WELLUSE1 | 20 | C | First listed purpose of the well site |
| WELLUSE2 | 20 | C | Second listed purpose of the well site |
| WATERUSE1 | 25 | C | First listed use of the water from the well |
| WATERUSE2 | 25 | C | Second listed use of the water from the well |
| WATERUSE3 | 25 | C | Third listed use of the water from the well |
| APPROVED | 8 | N | Date in YYYYMMDD the well construction was approved by ADWR. Included only if there is no actual construction date. |
| INSTALLED | 8 | N | Date in YYYYMMDD the well was constructed. NOTE This field was incomplete in the 1st edition and corrected in the 2nd edition. |
| DRILLER | 5 | N | License number of the driller of the original well. Matches DRILLER in the DRILLER.DBF table. |
| WELLDEPTH | 5 | N | Depth in feet of the well bore hole |
| WATERLEVEL | 5 | N | Depth to water in feet at the time the well was constructed. |
| CASINGTYPE | 40 | C | Type of casing material used to line the well bore hole. |
| CASINGDEEP | 5 | N | Depth of the well casing in feet. |
| CASINGWIDE | 2 | N | Width of the well casing in inches. |
| PUMPTYPE | 20 | C | Type of pump installed. |
| PUMPPOWER | 35 | N | Source and amount of power used for the pump. |
| PUMPRATE | 5 | N | Operational rate water can be pumped from the well in gallons per minute. |
| TESTRATE | 5 | N | Tested rate water can be pumped from the well in gallons per minute. |
| DRAWDOWN | 5 | N | Draw down of the water level in feet when the pump is operating. |
| DRILLLOG | 1 | C | Driller's log available (X) or incomplete (I) |
| LASTNAME | 25 | C | Last name of the current owner. Could also contain first name separated by commas. |
| FIRSTNAME | 15 | C | First name of the current owner. |
| COMPANY | 25 | C | Organization, business or agency name of the current owner. |
| ADDRESS | 40 | C | Mailing address of the current owner. |
| CITY | 20 | C | City name of the current owner. |
| STATE | 2 | C | Postal state abbreviation |
| ZIPCODE | 5 | C | Postal Zip Code |
| CANCELLED | 1 | C | NEW! Flag indicating that the well has been cancelled (Y). |
| Field Name | Size | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| DRILLER | 5 | N | Driller license number matching DRILLER in the ADWRWELL.DBF table. |
| COMPANY | 60 | C | Driller company name |
| ADDRESS | 30 | C | Driller mailing address |
| CITY | 20 | C | Driller city name |
| STATE | 2 | C | Driller state postal abbreviation |
| ZIPCODE | 10 | C | Driller postal Zip Code |
| Field Name | Size | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| REGISTRYID | 6 | C | Unique Well Registry identification number (with leading zeros) matching REGISTRYID in the ADWRWELL.DBF table. |
| PUMP1984 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1984. |
| PUMP1985 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1985. |
| PUMP1986 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1986. |
| PUMP1987 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1987. |
| PUMP1988 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1988. |
| PUMP1989 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1989. |
| PUMP1990 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1990. |
| PUMP1991 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1991. |
| PUMP1992 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1992. |
| PUMP1993 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1993. |
| PUMP1994 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1994. |
| PUMP1995 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1995. |
| PUMP1996 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1996. |
| PUMP1997 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1997. |
| PUMP1998 | 6.2 | N | Total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1998. NOTE: This column is incomplete because some of the 1998 Annual Reports have not been entered as of 7/22/99. Annual pumpage for 1998 should be complete in the next edition. |
| PUMPTOTAL | 7.2 | N | Grand total reported water pumped from the well in acre-feet for 1984 - 1998. |
Thank you for your interest in the ADWR Well Registry Distribution Database.
We are always interested in hearing your comments, suggestions for improvements or about any problems you have encountered using this product. For more information about this product, assistance using the product or to report problems please contact:
For other specific information about wells contact these ADWR offices:
| For more information about | Contact | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Copies of well driller logs | Records Management | 602-417-2405 |
| Drilling a well | Groundwater Management Support Section | 602-417-2470 |
| Groundwater conditions in a specific area or the Ground Water Site Inventory database | Basic Data Section | 602-417-2457 |
| Annual reported pumpage amounts ( Contact the closest office ) | Phoenix Active Management Area Office Phoenix,AZ | 602-417-2465 |
| Pinal Active Management Area Office Casa Grande, AZ | 520-836-4857 | |
| Tucson Active Management Area Office Tucson, AZ | 520-770-3800 | |
| Prescott Active Management Area Office Prescott, AZ | 520-778-7202 | |
| Santa Cruz Active Management Area Office Nogales, AZ | 520-761-1814 |