This will ultimately help determine if the Ogallala Aquifer has been effective in pumping water to Amarillo and surrounding areas.
We spoke with officials to break down the well testing process.
Ray Eads is checking our water levels.
"Well we run a tape end and just a long tape and just measure where the water level is. Well we measure to the top of the casing but we subtract that so everythings to ground level. And it's just how deep the water is under the ground," Eads said.
This is just one of the 1250 wells they're checking this winter in a 16-county radius.
High Plains Water District Field Technician Ray Eads says it's a tedius job.
"Well it's accurate. We do an accurate job. Each measurement and each year so then we can compare to what measurements we get," Eads said.
But they can't release numbers yet.
"It is too early to determine what trends we're seeing right now because we're only two weeks in to the water level measuring process," High Plains Water Conservation Group Supervisor, Carmon McCain said.
All of the water pumped to these wells comes from the ogallala Aquifer, a vital resource for the city of Amarillo.
But just like everything else, there's a limited amount.
"Just checked a report a little while ago on Carson County. And just scanning over the results from the beginning of the pumpage to now we have removed approximately 40 percent of the water in that area," Amarillo Director of Utilities, Emmett Autrey said.
But Autrey is optimistic about other solutions.
"What the city has done is it has acquired a lot of water rates all the way over into Ochiltree and Limbscomb., Roberts County and so on for the distant future," Autrey said.
Autrey says we rely soley on the aquifer.
We don't pull water from Lake Meredith anymore, which is why knowing what's in the Ogallala Aquifer is so critical.
