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Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot | All depends on where you are at and what kind of geology is underneath you. Here even with our pitiful precip each year, in the right areas a guy can hit some good wells.
The end of the valley that I am on has quite a few wells less than 300' deep that pump 2,000-5,000 gpm out of a 16" hole. They can produce that much, but most aren't pumping that all the time unless there is a lot of fields all needing water at the same time. There is one irrigation district well that pumps 12,000gpm out of a 24" hole. This end of the valley has rock fairly shallow, when drilling a well they can usually hit good rock at around 100', and it is fractured enough to transmit good water.
Now get into the center of the valley and it changes big time. The town in the middle has a well that is 2700' deep, and they never hit good rock. The water is terrible tasting and doesn't have good volume. Mostly clay, cinders and other alluvial fill. Not good formation. On the north end of the valley the district has some more 24" wells that are more in sand and gravel, they pump better than 5,000 gpm but they had to go over 2,000' to get it.
As far as the legal end, you'd have to check into that first. I am on the California side of the border here by eight miles or so, and we pretty much have free reign. The deepest well gets the water so to speak. Now just to the north in OR, they are much more regulated on who can put a well in and for what purpose.
Also have to check the quality of the water. There is a well or two around here that has a high salt content. The US Fish and Wildlife also spent a big pile of our tax dollars on wells for a bird refuge that ended up having a bunch of mercury in the water. Wouldn't really want to irrigate with that.
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wells for irrigating?
