is this something i can get for free from the state?

or am i going to have to pay someone to do some sort of survey on my land?

Depending on where your located, if you have a groundwater district they can get you this information. Another way is to call some local water well drillers and they can tell you based on experience.

This information is somewhere on the Texas Water Development Board Website also, you just have to do some searching

water table or depth to find water for a well?

water table can be found by looking your property up on web soil survey and looking at the soil descriptions.

http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm

If you want to know the depth of wells that have gone in near you try this site.

http://134.125.70.235/drillers-new/index.asp

well report search by map

first instance of groundwater, or drinking water?

There is a big difference.

im thinking of putting in a pond at the ranch and was wondering how hard it would be to drill a well. i know that if the table is around 25 you can hand drill it for a lot cheaper than hiring someone to do it for you.

be informed though, that even if you have a first instance of water at 25 feet, it might not produce the volume per day you need.

If you are serious about doing it yourself, I have some suggestions on how you need to "develop" the well.

*I installed groundwater monitoring wells for 6 years.

[This message has been edited by schmendeler (edited 8/18/2010 8:32a).]

this is an awesome resource for finding water table info:

http://gis3.tceq.state.tx.us/waterwellpublic/index.jsp

where are you looking at doing this. what area?

Swarely, just a little info on drilling wells and pumping water into tanks/ponds. I own an exotic game ranch in Driftwood, which is about 20 miles southwest of Austin in the Hill Country. During the severe drought conditions we experienced over the past two years, moratoriums were placed on any pumping of ground water into tanks and ponds. Any applications for new drilling permits were highly scrutinized. I had a friend who has a game ranch and they were doing the same thing (filling a fishing tank). One of their wells went dry and they filed for a new well permit. Needless to say, they had to stop pumping water immediately. Point here is you could lose your stock if you get into a drought condition and they implement some similar restrictions in your area. If you are in the wetlands or area with little to no drought history, then you will probably be fine.

"Gentlemen, we have boat drinks."

RhinoVic
CO'89