Storm Water Awareness Week 2025
Breaking Ground: Modern Drywell Solutions for the Southwest
Storm Water Awareness Week 2025 brought together industry professionals, engineers, and community leaders to share insights and solutions for protecting our water future. StormWater Pros was honored to host a session titled Breaking Ground: Modern Drywell Solutions for the Southwest, presented by CEO Brig Christensen, Corporate Technical Officer Glen Millett, P.E., and Corporate Operations Manager Juan Fletes.
If you missed it, you can watch the full recorded session here:
👉 StormWater Awareness Week Recorded Workshops
The Silent Water Crisis
Across the U.S., groundwater levels are dropping at an alarming rate. Nearly 50% of U.S. drinking water comes from groundwater (USGS), yet many aquifers are being depleted faster than nature can recharge them.
✔️ The Colorado River Basin has already lost 27.8 million acre feet of groundwater, equal to the volume of Lake Mead.
✔️ In California’s Central Valley, overpumping is causing land to sink and canals to fail.
✔️ Utah’s Cedar Valley has seen groundwater levels fall by 114 feet.
✔️ The Ogallala Aquifer, a lifeline for the Midwest, is drying up.
Meanwhile, urbanization and impervious surfaces are cutting off natural recharge, leaving aquifers with less water than ever before.
Why Drywells?
In the Southwest, where droughts are frequent and impermeable desert soils make infiltration difficult, drywells have emerged as one of the most effective tools for managed stormwater recharge.
Drywells, also known as infiltration wells, collect stormwater, filter it through pretreatment systems, and direct it into permeable soils where it can replenish groundwater. Unlike traditional drainage systems that simply move water away, drywells treat stormwater as a resource to be captured and stored for the future.
Arizona is leading the way, with more than 50,000 drywells installed statewide, and that number continues to grow each year.
Key Takeaways from the Workshop
✔️ Drywells turn stormwater into a local resource. They help reduce flooding, recharge aquifers, and support long term water sustainability.
✔️ Technology and regulations have evolved. Modern drywells are engineered with pretreatment, separation, and EPA compliant designs to protect groundwater quality.
✔️ Urbanization makes recharge essential. With millions more people living in the Southwest compared to just a few decades ago, infiltration infrastructure is critical to offset demand.
✔️ Construction is straightforward but precise. Our team walked through the drywell building process, from drilling and setting chambers to backfilling, installing inlets, and conducting final percolation tests.
Looking Ahead
The takeaway is clear: groundwater loss is a quiet but urgent driver of risk in the Southwest. We cannot rely on surface water alone. Managed, distributed infiltration through solutions like drywells offers a scalable, sustainable way forward.
“ These systems do much more than just carry water away. They act as infiltration tools, allowing us to preserve stormwater as a resource and return it into the ground where it can replenish groundwater.”
We are proud to continue advancing drywell technology and sharing knowledge that supports a more sustainable water future.
👉 Watch the full recording here: StormWater Awareness Week Recorded Workshops