Irrigation Reporting Information

Illinois agricultural irrigation facilities using high-capacity wells must report their annual water withdrawal rates to the Illinois Water Inventory Program (IWIP) under Public Act 096-0222. Through irrigation reporting, IWIP can track agricultural water use, evaluate how irrigation affects natural resources, and inform long-term water management decisions.

Who Should Report

Reporting is required for any agricultural irrigation facility that has high-capacity water withdrawals. A high-capacity system is defined as a single withdrawal point or a series of points that pump more than 70 gallons per minute.

This requirement stems from the Illinois Water Use Act, which was amended in 2010 to make reporting mandatory for all high-capacity systems in Illinois. Agricultural irrigation was given five years to comply, and since 2015, irrigators have been required to report water use from wells and surface water intakes.

Aggregate Reporters

Aggregate reporters should email Tanner Jones, IWIP Irrigation Specialist, or call 217-300-7315 for assistance.

Registration

You must submit the IWIP Irrigation Well Registration Form to register with IWIP for individual or aggregate reporting.

Accurate well and intake locations are important parts of the registration process. When you register your facility, you will need to provide coordinates for each withdrawal point. This short video tutorial shows how to easily determine the coordinates of your well using Google Maps. You can also refer to the example in the IWIP Irrigation Handbook for additional guidance.

If you have questions or need assistance with this process, IWIP is available to help using the contact information provided below.

How to Report

You can submit your irrigation water use data in one of two ways: online using IWIP’s Agricultural Irrigation Reporting Tool, or by sending completed PDF forms via email or mail.

Report by Email or Mail

To submit your water use data via email or mail, download the following fillable PDFs and complete them electronically to take advantage of their automatic calculation features.

• Registration Form
• Reporting Form
• Flowmeter Data Sheet
• Acre-Inches Data Sheet
• Rated GPMs-Hours Data Sheet

Please email IWIP your completed forms, or mail them to:

Illinois State Water Survey
IWIP Reporting
2204 Griffith Drive
Champaign, IL 61820-7463

Calculating Water Use

Irrigators can provide the actual number of gallons pumped if using a flow meter, or, under the Illinois Water Use Act, they can estimate their water withdrawals using an ISWS-approved method. 

Approved Estimation Methods

If your system does not use a flow meter, you may estimate your total water usage using either of these simple methods:

1. Acre-Inches Method: Inches applied × acres × 27,150 gallons/acre-inch
2. Hours-Flowrate Method: Hours run × rated gallons per minute × 60 minutes/hour

Questions or Comments?

For general questions or comments about irrigation reporting or IWIP data collections, contact:

• Cora Wessman, IWIP coordinator, 217-333-5838 | cwessm3@cwessm3illinois-edu
• Gustava Curtin, ISWS academic research assistant | ghoskins@illinois.edu