Devarim 21:4 records that by the eglah arufa ceremony a heifer is to be brought to a nahal eitan and killed. A nahal is a wadi but it is not clear what is meant by the word eitan. The Mishnah (Sotah 9:5, also see Rashi and Luzzatto on 21:4) writes that it was hard ground, a dry wadi. On the other hand, the Rambam (Laws of murder and preserving life, 9:2) explains that nahal eitan means a strong flowing creek, and this is followed by modern translators. For example, Fox (1995, p. 942) and Alter (2004, p. 980) translate the phrase as an "ever flowing or swift running wadi." Tigay (1996, p. 192) explains that eitan is a wadi with a perennial stream, and that this translation is based on an Arabic word.
Tigay questions the interpretation of a perennial wadi "since there are not many perennial wadis in Israel," and hence "it would be difficult to carry out this ceremony in most parts of the country." This question appears to be based on the assumption that the ceremony was held near the place where the victim was found, but the Torah only states that the elders were to be from the city that was closest to the victim, but nothing is stated about where the wadi was. The wadi could have been quite far from the where the corpse was found.
21:4 records that the wadi was not tilled or sown. Tigay (1996, p. 142) notes that this could mean "either that it was never tilled or sown or cannot be" in the future tilled or sown, see Mishnah Sotah 9:5. Either possibility makes it difficult to find a wadi for the ceremony. Any wadi near a city would naturally be used to irrigate the land around it and if a wadi could not be used after the ceremony, then many eglah arufa ceremonies would decrease the available land for farming.
My guess is that there were just a few wadis or even just one wadi that was to be used for the ceremony and it did not matter where the wadi was since the elders would have to travel to the wadi. In addition, the priests, who joined the ceremony in the middle, were not from the city closest to the victim but were more likely from the chosen city where they officiated. The chosen wadis could have been some of the few perennials wadis in the country. Also, as the Torah did not specify any length to the wadi, it could have been that only one part of one wadi was used over and over again for the ceremony.
Bibliography:
Alter, Robert, 2004, The five books of Moses: A translation and commentary, New York: W. W. Norton and Company
Fox, Everett, 1995, The Five Books of Moses: A new translation, New York: Schocken Books.
Tigay, Jeffrey H. 1996, The JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.
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