YOUR BEST PRACTICE
BENEFITS of irrigation well meters
Gary L. Hix, RG, CWD/PI
Irrigation well with a flow meter installed
Metering and monitoring an irrigation well can prevent costly pumping equipment failures and well damage.
pumping water levels along with energy consumption as an optimum management practice. Every irrigation well owner or well field manager should know their monthly operating cost per well measured in gallons pumped per kilowatt hours of energy used.
Example of a flow meter on an irrigation well W
hen I talk to a grower about adding a meter to their irrigation well, too often the reaction is negative because they fear government
monitoring and a tax on their water pumpage. In some states, however, farmers are already paying for the groundwater they pump as measured by water meters. Due to sustained drought conditions in some areas, it is likely that more states will impose metering and reporting of groundwater pumping. Even if taxation of water production is not in play, the metering of water wells has advantages for all well owners.
Based on my experience, I believe that metering your irrigation well is a necessary first step to proper management of resources and overall operating costs. Total water pumpage from wells should always be monitored, as should static and
28 Irrigation TODAY | Spring 2022
Metering and monitoring provide proper management of a single well, a couple of wells or an entire well field. Proper monitoring of well efficiencies will save a farmer money in the long run. Declines in equipment or aquifer performance can be detected sooner than just pumping a well until production declines significantly or the pumping equipment fails completely. Therefore, all large water users should insist on having properly working water meters on their wells. As a former water well contractor, I can attest to the ever-rising cost of replacing pumping equipment and water wells especially during peak growing seasons.
Far too many irrigation water wells are not equipped with flow meters to indicate the flow rate and record total gallons pumped. Most are also not equipped with sounding tubes to measure static and pumping water levels. However, most of them are equipped with a recording power meter because they must pay for the energy used to operate them. Today’s trend in agriculture is to remotely monitor water
application, soil moisture plant health and numerous other parameters, so why are growers and farmers reluctant to efficiently manage their water wells? Operating, maintenance and future well rehabilitation costs can be managed just as efficiently as other aspects of farming.
There are two common ratio analysis methods that can be used to monitor and manage irrigation water wells. The first and easiest ratio to monitor is the gallons per minute divided by the drawdown in feet as measured after the well has been pumping for a fixed period of time. This dimensionless ratio is commonly called the specific capacity of the well. If a well was producing 20 gpm per foot of drawdown when it was new, that was an efficient water well. If the same well today is pumping only 10 gpm per foot of drawdown, then the well or the pumping equipment might need attention. The point is that without knowing what that number is, the well owner has no idea what’s going on in the well.
The second and more important ratio is the gallons of water pumped per kilowatt hours of electrical energy used. It is known to well managers as the water-to-wire efficiency ratio, or W/We. This ratio should be measured and monitored no less than monthly to better manage a farmer’s most valuable asset, their water well. While the
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