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During an average year about forty percent of California's water supply comes from <br />ground water. Ground water is used for agricultural, industrial, domestic, and municipal <br />water supplies. Protecting the quality of California's ground water is essential to <br />California's future. <br />Improperly constructed wells can allow pollution of ground water to the point that the <br />water is either unusable or it requires expensive treatment. The California Water Code <br />requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to develop minimum standards <br />for water wells, monitoring wells, and cathodic protection wells to protect ground water <br />quality. <br />This bulletin is a supplement to DWR Bulletin 74-81, Water Well Standards: State of <br />California, December 1981. Standards in Bulletin 74-81 and this bulletin are minimum <br />requirements for construction, alteration, maintenance, and destruction of water wells, <br />monitoring wells, and cathodic protection wells in California. <br />This bulletin was prepared in cooperation with the State Water Resources Control <br />Board. The Board adopted a model water well, monitoring well, and cathodic <br />protection well ordinance that implements DWR well standards. All California cities <br />and counties, and some water agencies are required to enact local well ordinances that <br />meet or exceed DWR standards, or they must enforce the Board's model ordinance as <br />if it were their own. <br />Sometimes well standards adopted by local agencies must be more stringent than <br />DWR's statewide standards because of local conditions. Local agencies playa critical <br />role in protecting ground water quality. <br />Continued cooperation is needed between the public, industry, local agencies, and the <br />State to ensure that these well standards remain adequate and are put into practice. <br />California's water supply future depends on this cooperation. <br />David N. Kennedy, Director <br />Department of Water Resources