Irrigating from High Water Table

[Vik Kasparian]

Greeting from Southern California: I am interested in extracting water from a water table that is less than 15' deep. I know the depth of the water table as I recently dug a trench to install a sewer pipe. There was so much water that we needed to de-water the trench with a pump to install the line. We were pumping approx 45 gallons per minute (or 170 liters/min) I suppose that I can get the irrigation water the same way by digging a trench filling it with rock and submersing a pump, but I am not sure if this is really the best practice.

Would appreciate your feedback.

Thanks

[David E. Ross]

Get the water tested.

In some cases (depending on the subsoil type), ground water might contain excess salts that can damage plants. Or it might contain other minerals that adversely impact the tilth of surface soil.

However, in some cases, ground water that is totally unsuitable for drinking because of mineral content can be quite okay for irrigation. I know of a public park that was successfully irrigated with highly mineralized ground water. The water table was less than 10 ft down.