It takes more than 27,000 gallons of water to irrigate one inch across one acre of land. It sounds like a lot and it is but not when you think about how much most well pumps are rated for pumping. Generally, they pump millions of gallons per day, but very few of them actually hit that rate. Between ground water and surface water, Indiana farmers have a lot more options and fewer regulations than the western states.

“Under riparian water rights, anyone who owns land adjacent to a watercourse has the right to reasonable use of the water,” said Jane Frankenberger who is a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University. “The riparian concept does not directly apply to groundwater, but a similar concept means that landowners can withdraw water from wells on their property.” 

Riparian: refers to land adjacent to a watercourse.

While those water rights are slightly limited, that’s only in reference to large facilities withdrawing more than 100,000 gallons per day. Those larger wells can have a negative effect on neighboring smaller wells, which would require compensation to offset the damage. Facilities using such large volumes of water, known as “significant water withdrawal facilities,” are required to register their well and provide monthly withdrawal statements.

“Well and pump registration came about in the 1980s when Indiana started having problems with Prudential irrigation (large blocks of farmland in Jasper County) and nearby wells dried up,” Frankenberger said. “The idea behind mandating withdrawal reporting was because we can’t manage the resource without understanding it better. The point of the registration is to gather data and understand how water is being used.”

When a new pump is drilled or an existing one gets deepened, the well driller who does that work will turn in the well log. This not only informs the state that the pump exists but also what type of soil the driller encountered.

“Once you start pumping you have to register it and report withdrawals. Nobody will stop you from pumping unless you cause harm – loss of water – to a smaller well that is not a significant water withdrawal facility, such as a home well,” Frankenberger said. “Small wells are protected by state laws, so if an irrigation system causes them harm, the larger well is required to provide compensation to replace the water supply. However, there is no equivalent protection for significant water withdrawal facilities; consequently, nobody has to do anything if they cause harm to your irrigation well.”

Frankenberger thinks of it as “the law of the largest pump.” Nobody has exclusive rights to water under their property because anyone who can reach it can begin pumping from it. There’s at least one employee at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources who resolves issues related to water rights where one well is impacted by another.

“Laws are made when there’s conflict, and in the Eastern half of the US, there hasn’t yet been a lot of issues related to water,” Frankenberger said. “Western water law is completely different. In most Western states, water rights are something you can buy or sell, but we don’t do that in Indiana. Historically, we’ve had plenty of water in most places, so it has not been a critical issue for us.”

A vast majority of water used for irrigation comes from a well rather than surface water.

“There’s been a lot of discussion since the proposed LEAP project withdrawal in Boone County, which was looking at 100 million gallons per day, that maybe it’s time to require some sort of permit to set up these larger water withdrawals,” Frankenberger said. “Some people think there might be a bill coming in 2025 that would impact the very large systems. I have not heard of any proposals that would regulate irrigation systems, only withdrawals that are much larger.”

Water rights are generally a state issue. The federal government doesn’t have any relevant laws for water rights, and local government is not allowed to pass such substantial laws.

“There is one right that producers do not have in relation to water usage: they cannot limit anyone else from using the water they were previously using,” Frankenberger said. “For example, if a farmer is irrigating, and an adjacent landowner installs a larger pump that pulls water from the first farmer’s property, no compensation is required.”

Unfortunately, it’s a fairly simple system with the opportunity to get very complicated quickly. A lot of Frankenberger’s work revolves around better understanding how water is used in the state which can only lead to better management and legislation down the road. Halderman suggests that interested landowners watch the state legislature this winter for any potential action related to water rights and usage.

Water resources provided by Frankenberger:

IDNR Water Withdrawals: https://www.in.gov/dnr/water/water-availability-use-rights/significant-water-withdrawal-facility-data/

Graphs of water use by county and month: https://sites.google.com/view/indianawateruse/