The purpose of this paper is to present a method of assessing ground‐water interference effects of multiple wells upon any given well in an aquifer. The method specifically relates to depleted aquifers and attempts to assign the responsibility for the depletion effects to all users on a reliable basis. This basis entails the fundamental relationships between the pertinent variables and is not a simple percentage of water usage rates. The method takes into account both flow magnitude and radial distances from all users to the given depleted well. Large flows at longer distances, in general, affect a given well less than smaller flows at closer distances.
The methodology applied in this paper was developed as a result of a legal suit where relative responsibility among several users for depletion effects had to be assigned. The method will assign the effects, or deprivation contribution, of all water users on any given well in an aquifer common to all the wells. The limitations of the method are also discussed.
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