Presentations

Sustaining ground water for production encompasses myriad technical, legal, administrative, and socioeconomic measures. Perhaps forgotten in the discussion of this topic is the simple fact that the agricultural industry must be profitable. While it is obvious that sustaining groundwater is important to agriculture, it is also important that the farmer's business ledger show a positive result. Profitability is understood by all agriculturalists. However, sometimes forgotten is that the cost of groundwater production is an operational expenditure which can be and should be controlled. The cost of pumping any well is manageable and its management begins when the well is designed, not when the well is put into operation. Understanding key factors in well design, such as well efficiency, is imperative if one intends to sustain effective controls on ground water production costs. Choices made when any well is designed are certain to have long-term consequences that will directly impact the cost of water. Once the well is constructed, there is no turning back....no second chances. Therefore, every agricultural well should be designed with careful consideration of its efficiency just as are municipal supply wells. In so doing, the agricultural well will be operated so that each unit volume of water is delivered to the field at the lowest sustainable cost.