Statewide Summary

Locally Reported Dry Wells for Drought Assistance

The Department of Water Resources has provided the following statistical summaries of data useful for statewide and local purposes. A cross-agency team, led by DWR, seeks to verify and update the data submitted. However, due to the volunteer nature of the reporting and limitations on reporting agencies, information in the following summaries is undoubtedly under-representative of all dry wells that have occurred or dry wells that have been resolved. In addition, reports are received from multiple sources and there are occasionally errors and omissions that can create duplicate entries. For example, missing information or no data for a given county does not necessarily mean that there are no dry wells in the county, rather only that none have been reported to the State. The summaries reflect outreach conducted by local and state entities. Dry wells can be caused by many drought and non-drought factors, including aging infrastructure like corroded wells, declining groundwater levels, changes to weather patterns and climate, or surface water and groundwater management. These factors affect specific areas in unique ways and vary throughout the State.

Summary of Locally Reported Household Water Shortages by County

The table below represents cumulative reports of dry wells by county reported to the Dry Well Reporting System.

Summary Table Field Definitions:

Total Reports: Reflects the cumulative number of reports submitted to the Dry Well Reporting System.

Outage: A dry well report that has been submitted to the Dry Well Reporting System with no reported resolution. For more information visit Open Data.

Interim Solution/Resolved: : The number of dry well reports submitted to the Dry Well Reporting System where either an interim solution or a resolution has been achieved as further described below:
  • Interim Solution - A dry well condition that has been temporarily addressed by either 1) hauled water, bottled water and/or on-site storage tank 2) water sharing from a nearby property through a water line or hose, or 3) not residing at the household until the dry well condition is resolved.
  • Resolved - A dry well condition that has been addressed by either repair, replacement, or groundwater level recovery.

For more information visit Open Data.