[war1025]

> Wells might not work beyond a certain population density due to insufficient groundwater recharge rate.

Isn't agricultural irrigation the largest source of groundwater depletion in places where it's an issue?

I believe basically all water here in Iowa is pulled from groundwater wells. I've never heard of it being something anyone was worried, but we also don't irrigate fields like they do in the Western states.

The main issue I hear about is people worrying about farm chemical runoff getting into the aquifers.

[aw1621107]

> Isn't agricultural irrigation the largest source of groundwater depletion in places where it's an issue?

> I believe basically all water here in Iowa is pulled from groundwater wells. I've never heard of it being something anyone was worried, but we also don't irrigate fields like they do in the Western states.

Those are good points; I should have qualified my comment with "depending on location and local groundwater conditions". Evidently wells do work for at least some urban areas, but whether it's a viable option for all, I don't know.

[justanotherc]

I'm not a well expert, but from what I've read is that chemical runoff could get into shallow sandpoint wells, but if you drill a 200ft deep well, that water is millions of years old.

[war1025]

Did a quick search, and this link [1] from what appears to be a reputable source says most household wells are pulling up water that is less than 10 years old.

Granted that probably varies a lot by region.

I've heard of a fair number of people that have their wells go bad and need to drill deeper to get clean water.

Found this page [2] that lists registered well depths here in Iowa. Seems that somewhere in the 300-400ft range is common. Deeper for municipal wells.

[1] https://agwt.org/content/how-old-your-well-water

[2] https://www.iihr.uiowa.edu/igs/geosam/depth_map