Tips for Using Water Data Interactive from The Texas Water Development Board
Step 1. Input the address in the upper left corner.
Step 2. Just above the address bar, click on “Groundwater” and then check the box for “Well Reports”. Well reports are the most recent well data points and will show up as orange dots on the map. I recommend you choose a label for each type. I like “borehole depth”. You can choose that for the “TWDB Groundwater” wells also. They will show up as blue dots. These are generally older well data points.
You can also click on “Layers” and look at different aquifers and groundwater districts. Beside that, you can choose from several different base maps.
Step 3. Once you zoom into the area you want to research, just click on the dot you want data from.
This will bring up a box with some general well data. But, if you click on the blue link near the top of the box, it will bring up the drilling report.
Most of the drilling reports on this website are from 2002 and newer. Old drilling reports are on a different site. And it is a bit harder to use, so buckle up. Click on the picture below to start looking.
Step 4. Once again, start by putting in the address in the upper left corner. If you zoom out, you can see that they have created grid lines to cover the entire state. You are going to look for any wells in your grid. If you live close to another grid, you might need to check in neighboring grids also.
Step 5. Once you are zoomed in to the property you want to search, click on the screen near your property (left click). A window will pop up. You can click on “Plotted WW Reports (grid)” and it will open a new window that looks like this.
Step 6. Under “Grid Num” you can see some blue grid numbers. Click on the first one of these. This will open another window that has many drilling reports in it. These are the drilling reports that have been filed for the grid that your property is in. Click on each of the grid numbers to look at all of the reports. Be sure to zoom out on the main map to see if you are close to another grid. If so, check all neighboring grids.
Step 7. Now for the frustrating part. You are probably searching here to find a specific drill report for an old well. Unfortunately, these reports were not filed in a manner that makes this easy. For instance, the form that many of them use doesn’t even have a place for the address of the property. This makes finding your report really fun. So here are some tips.
Write down everything you know about the well.
- Who drilled the well?
- What year was it drilled (when was the house built)?
- Who owned the property when it was drilled?
- Who was the builder that may have contracted to have the well drilled?
- What size and type of casing is the well using?
Using this information, you might be able to figure out which report belongs to your well.
Note: drilling reports for private wells were not required prior to 1985. So, if your well is older than that, you probably won’t find it. If you know the driller, you can contact them to see if they have records on the work that was done. Good luck.
