This answer says that the water from a ground source is always 50F. (I think this varies by location, but the concept is valid, anyway.) Why do we even need a heat pump? Why not just run that cold water through the walls? Does that require so much more water flow that the heat pump is a more economic route than a pump that would do the job?
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There is no reason why a source of cold water cannot be beneficially used to chill a house. If lots of water is available, why not? But the heat pump method allows for compact & simple heat exchange (air gets cooled inside the chiller and then blown to where it is needed) instead of having to move water around inside the house. The chiller can be made small because the working fluid in the heat pump system is far cooler than 50F.
Passive air cooling using cold water was practiced in ancient Persia, where long buried aqueducts with airspace above the water served as air/water heat exchangers and wind blowing over the living space was used to draw a suction on it and thereby pull the chilled (and humidified) air into the structure. Scientific American ran an article describing this system about 40 years ago.
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