We are south of College Station outside of city limits. Looking to drill a well (irrigation, ag use, domestic use). and would prefer >20GPM but nearby reports show only about 15GPM @200ft w/4" casing. Seems like 400ft is the max that most outfitters go and it's sort of hit/miss unless we are willing to go big (say 700ft or more) which I think is double the price or more. It sounds like from casual talk that a 200ft will run about $10k-$12k, and a 500ft+ is going to double that?

Are there any companies that you suggest/recommend or to stay away from?

Helpful tool: https://www3.twdb.texas.gov/apps/WaterDataInteractive/GroundwaterDataViewer/?map=sdr

Not your area so take it with a grain of salt, but the drillers I talked to in Parker county are at $20k for a 200ft well after you get all your equipment.

$12-15k sounds like a steal.

I would do some research on what you will gain my going deeper. Does going deeper to 400 get you more water because you will hit more veins? If not your just going to have a deeper hole of water but not increase GPM.
Does going deeper perhaps get you into a more productive aquifer?
I will say from experience.... if you do go deeper to 350 or more make sure they at least do a 6" casing. That way you will have a greater selection of submergible pumps available to you to get as much GPM as you need. 4" casings limit your pump choices at deeper depths.
I found that out the hard way. My driller went down to 550' with 4" casing. The most efficient pump I needed would not fit in a 4" casing. To get my required GPM I was forced to by a very expensive pump that would fit in the 4". Plus it had to have three phase power which cost me a lot of extra money.
For the cost of the special pump and the three phase I would have more than paid for the extra cost of the 6" casing.

Recently had a well drilled in the northern Austin/Washington County area. My well went to a depth of 225 ft. I wanted to keep a pond full and have plenty of water for everything else. I used Texas Southern Drilling out of Columbus Tx. This company is great. They found the water level I needed for all of my needs, installed a 2 hp pump and now I am going strong. These guys have all of the latest drilling equipment and will drill that well in no time. They finished drilling my well in about 5 hours. The pump was set a few days later. I was like you with a lot of questions about my needs. I also found another great drilling company near Austin, Bee Cave Drilling. They have lots of information out on u tube about water wells, pumps, etc. They will also answer any questions you may have if you just call them. First Class company also. I cannot say enough good about Texas Southern Drilling or Bee Cave for the info. they provided me.

I'm curious. Prior to drilling a well, do you have to get a permit from some county water board specifying depth and pipe diameter? And if so, does the well drilling company have to see the authorization prior to drilling?

IamGroot said:

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I'm curious. Prior to drilling a well, do you have to get a permit from some county water board specifying depth and pipe diameter? And if so, does the well drilling company have to see the authorization prior to drilling?

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Yes. And a well log has to be submitted to the state upon completion.

Just a warning, It's tough to get good water in south CS. My experience is with a 400' well with pump at ~280 that only produced about 5 gpm and burned up a pump every 2 yrs due to the fine sands and a 10" to 950 that produces about 60 gpm but is on it's second pump in 3 yrs and looks like it has a blowout and silted solid now... Currently looking at drilling a new well with steel casing to 1200' + hoping to get past the fine sands at shallower depths. This one will likely be well over $150k

Count your blessings because it's way more expensive than that west of Waco.

HUEY04 said:

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Just a warning, It's tough to get good water in south CS. My experience is with a 400' well with pump at ~280 that only produced about 5 gpm and burned up a pump every 2 yrs due to the fine sands and a 10" to 950 that produces about 60 gpm but is on it's second pump in 3 yrs and looks like it has a blowout and silted solid now... Currently looking at drilling a new well with steel casing to 1200' + hoping to get past the fine sands at shallower depths. This one will likely be well over $150k

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Huey, do you have relatives in Crawford?

I paid $10.5k for 240' with top 100' cemented in Wise County

HUEY04 said:

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Just a warning, It's tough to get good water in south CS. My experience is with a 400' well with pump at ~280 that only produced about 5 gpm and burned up a pump every 2 yrs due to the fine sands and a 10" to 950 that produces about 60 gpm but is on it's second pump in 3 yrs and looks like it has a blowout and silted solid now... Currently looking at drilling a new well with steel casing to 1200' + hoping to get past the fine sands at shallower depths. This one will likely be well over $150k

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You should ask about jetting it out then drilling it deeper. My family owns a water well drilling business and when they drill wells in areas that are prone to caving in, they set screened/slotted casing all the way to the bottom of the hole. They then fill the annulus with gravel to help hold its integrity without affecting production. Gravel is filled to the top of the desired formation, then cemented from there to surface.

Lots of useful information here:

https://www3.twdb.texas.gov/apps/waterdatainteractive/groundwaterdataviewer

Dang- water is expensive.

I would contact Siegert and get their opinions on your options.

Corps_Ag12 said:

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Not your area so take it with a grain of salt, but the drillers I talked to in Parker county are at $20k for a 200ft well after you get all your equipment.

$12-15k sounds like a steal.

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Good grief, I had no idea it was that high. I work out in Brock and paying $20k for what could increasingly be a dry hole seems like a tough decision to make.

HUEY04 said:

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Just a warning, It's tough to get good water in south CS. My experience is with a 400' well with pump at ~280 that only produced about 5 gpm and burned up a pump every 2 yrs due to the fine sands and a 10" to 950 that produces about 60 gpm but is on it's second pump in 3 yrs and looks like it has a blowout and silted solid now... Currently looking at drilling a new well with steel casing to 1200' + hoping to get past the fine sands at shallower depths. This one will likely be well over $150k

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I'm south Brazos county with a 300' well with the pump sitting at 120'. Currently running 12 GPM without any issues over the last 3 years.

Maybe I'm lucky?

My advice to just about anybody drilling a well these days is "when in doubt, go deeper". The news is going to be filled with stories about wells going dry all around the state in the next decade or so, especially in areas with rapid growth. The other thing to consider is that if you are only concerned about the well yield for instantaneous rate concerns, but not total daily production, you can add a tank to the system to allow the instantaneous rate to be met, but fill the tank at a slower rate over a longer period of time that is sustainable in the well. It can put more demands on the well pump, but also keeps you from being without water if the pump goes out or the power goes off.

Where are y'all in South CS/Brazos County? Have some property near Koppe Bridge Rd and Hopes Creek Rd and we're set to drill a well by Brien later this year.

They're estimating 300'.

txags92 said:

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. The news is going to be filled with stories about wells going dry all around the state in the next decade or so.

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Source?

Jbob04 said:

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txags92 said:

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. The news is going to be filled with stories about wells going dry all around the state in the next decade or so.

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Source?

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Common sense and a degree in geology with a specialization in hydrogeology? Or how about this?

Hill Country Wells Going Dry | TexAgs

Aquifer levels are declining across the state. Just look at the TWDB resources on that topic. If you look on any NextDoor site across the hill country, there are multiple people whose wells are running dry or having to lower their pumps to keep pumping. And we are forecast to add 1.2 million to the population in the hill country alone by 2030. You are a fool or have your head in the sand if you don't see that issue coming down the tracks toward us.

Here are some graphs of historical data for the last 50 years (except Hondo which didn't go back that far) in the Edwards Aquifer. There were deeper droughts earlier in the record, but in the last 50 years, we have had increased control from the EAA, improved recharge enhancement efforts, conservation efforts from SAWS, etc. that make it more of an apples to apples comparison than looking at the droughts of the 1930s or 1950s. Even with those efforts, the linear trend at all three locations over the last 40-50 years is down, and if I had put a non-linear trend line on it, you would see that it is accelerating. This is not just happening in the Edwards.

txags92 said:

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My advice to just about anybody drilling a well these days is "when in doubt, go deeper". The news is going to be filled with stories about wells going dry all around the state in the next decade or so, especially in areas with rapid growth. The other thing to consider is that if you are only concerned about the well yield for instantaneous rate concerns, but not total daily production, you can add a tank to the system to allow the instantaneous rate to be met, but fill the tank at a slower rate over a longer period of time that is sustainable in the well. It can put more demands on the well pump, but also keeps you from being without water if the pump goes out or the power goes off.

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I would say it should also lessen your chance of collapsing casing or drawing in silts.