Availability and Content of Domestic Well Records in the United States

Abstract

AbstractGround water professionals within public and private sectors use well records as data sources. Both the availability and the technical content of domestic well records in the 50 states are of interest to them. Well record availability is dependent on legal requirements, filing systems, databases, and storage places. Forty‐six states have statewide regulations or other legal requirements for filing completion reports for domestic wells. Fifty‐one agencies across the country maintain domestic well records. Filing systems involve location, chronology, date, or number information. Thirty‐one of the 51 agencies maintain varying types of databases containing record information or data related to the records. Overall, records are kept in central offices in 43 states and in regional offices in three states.The technical content of the records was evaluated for general, location, hydrogeology, and well construction information to assess the relative value of the records for use in national pesticide surveys. Technical information tabulated from the well records collected for this paper included nine items in a general category, 28 items in a well‐construction category, eight items in a hydrogeology category, and six items in a location category. Items in the general and location categories identified the well location and ownership. Construction category items include those describing well‐construction parameters such as grout, casing, and screen. Hydrogeology category items include static water level, aquifer media, and estimated yield. The three items always requested were owner's name, driller's name, and static water level. The three least‐requested items, ranging from 16 percent to 10 percent, were packers, drilling fluid, and geologic formation.