2023 Reporting Deadline: January 1st, 2024
For 2023 Irrigation Water Use Reporting, the deadline for submission will be January 1st, 2024. This deadline will be the standard deadline for reporting the previous year's Water Use Information. Please make note of the January 1st deadline in your record-keeping.
Note that Irrigators may submit their annual reports any time prior to the January 1st deadline.
Aggregate Reporters:
Please contact Alison Meanor, Agricultural Irrigation Data Coordinator, at 217-265-8634 or ameanor@illinois.edu.
In 2010, the Illinois Water Use Act was amended to make reporting for all high capacity wells or intakes mandatory in Illinois, including agricultural irrigation. Ag irrigation was given five years to comply, which means that since 2015, irrigators
have been required to report their water use from both wells and surface water intakes. A high capacity well/intake is defined as a single point of withdrawal or a series of points that together pump more than 70 gallons per minute.
Irrigators can provide an actual number of gallons pumped, if using a flow meter, or The Water Use Act of 1983 states they can estimate their water withdrawals using a method approved by the ISWS. The ISWS has identified two estimation methods that are both simple to use and don’t require a lot of additional effort for an irrigator:
- The acre-inches method – Number of inches applied x acres x 27150 gallons per acre-inch
- The hours-flowrate method – Number of hours ran x rated gallons per minute of system x 60min/hr
The irrigation handbook available for download below, includes forms and provides guidance on what an irrigator needs to do now and during the year for recordkeeping, calculating, and reporting irrigation water use. All of the forms are also downloadable below as fillable PDFs, which can be filled out electronically and then printed once filled in. Online reporting is now an available option, which allows you to report individually through a dedicated web application, instead of printing and mailing in a paper form. If you prefer, paper forms can be downloaded from this website, printed, filled out with pen, and mailed in. We will also encourage local extension and farm bureau offices to keep copies of the handbook and forms on hand.
Locations of each withdrawal point are a critical part of the data collected by the ISWS. Irrigators are asked to provide an accurate location of each well and intake. A short video tutorial is provided below that demonstrates an easy method of determining the coordinates of your well using Google Maps. There is also an example in the handbook, or you can call the ISWS for assistance, contact information is below. Once you have registered and receive a facility ID, the online system will automatically add your well information to the reporting form for you.
Irrigation Handbook (pdf ~6mb) – explains the program, provides forms you will need, provides examples of how to fill them out, and has complete instructions for registering your wells and intakes, and reporting your water use. (Revised July 2020)
(Read this first)
Useful Forms for Individual Reporting
Registration Form (pdf ~92k) - a fillable form that can be printed and mailed in.
Reporting Form (pdf ~65k) - fillable form for reporting total gallons used from each well or intake, due at the end of each year.
Flowmeter Data Sheet (pdf ~100k) - form you can use to track gallons pumped during the irrigation season from a totalizing flow-meter that will calculate total gallons.
Acre-Inches Data Sheet (pdf ~100k) - form that helps you track the number of inches applied to each field during the irrigation season that will calculate total gallons
Rated Gpms-Hours Data Sheet (pdf ~90k) - form that helps you track the total hours ran for an irrigation system during the irrigation season that calculates total gallons pumped, assuming you know the rated gallons per minute your system pumps.
Email completed forms to: isws-iwip@isws.illinois.edu or
Mail to:
Illinois State Water Survey
IWIP Reporting
2204 Griffith Dr.
Champaign, IL 61820-7463
Online Reporting
To report online, you must have a username and password to login.To get the necessary login information you have to first have your wells and/or intakes registered using the Registration Form so that your wells and intakes can be listed under your login in the online system. When you complete the registration form, following the instructions in the Irrigation Handbook, send it in and the IWIP program will email you your well/intake ID's, a facility ID for each county in which you irrigate, and a username and password to use to log in. Once logged into the system, you can enter your pumpage information, just as you would on the reporting form. The instructions for using the online system are in Appendix E of the Irrigation Handbook, or can be downloaded here - Online Reporting Instructions.
Login Page for the Online Reporting Tool
(only if you already have a username and password)
Illinois Center Pivot Irrigation
The Irrigation Water Use and Withdrawals collections portion of the Illinois Water Inventory Program (IWIP) continues to grow. IWIP staff work closely with Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) staff members to standardize a timeline for reporting and registering both individual and aggregate county reports, as well as market and raise awareness for the IWIP reporting process and requirements. Representative irrigation totals are calculated from either individually reported data, field data, or another ground tested method for each county/irrigation area in Illinois. The representative acre-inches are applied over the county/area totals to calculate county estimates, to make up for non-reporting data.
For questions or comments please contact Vlad Iordache by email at: iordach1@illinois.edu.
Last Updated: 9 Dec. 2021
Alison Meanor – ISWS, IWIP Agricultural Irrigation Data Coordinator, 217-265-8634, ameanor@illinois.edu
Tanner Jones -- ISWS, IWIP Irrigation Specialist, 217-300-7315, tannerj@illinois.edu
Steve Wilson – ISWS, Groundwater Hydrologist, 217-333-0956, sdwilson@illinois.edu
