Well Drilling in Bell County, TX

• Bell County's rows in the 2020 Census place-by-county list name the cities of Belton, Killeen, Temple, Harker Heights, Nolanville, Troy, Little River-Academy, Morgan's Point Resort, Copperas Cove (also in Coryell and Lampasas counties) and Bartlett (also in Williamson County), the towns of Holland and Rogers, the village of Salado and the Pendleton census designated place, all still on the Bureau's current TIGERweb place layers.
• TDLR licenses well drilling and pump installation separately and posts a license search. Clearwater's exempt-well application (Form 1, revised August 1, 2025) asks for the pump installer's and well driller's TDLR license numbers under a "Required by law" heading.
• Rule 7.1 sets five management zones, Southwest, Stillhouse Hollow, Belton Lake and Eastern IH35 over the Trinity and an Edwards BFZ zone following TWDB's Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone) Aquifer delineation, and a zone can carry its own spacing, tract size, column pipe and permitting requirements (Rule 7.1.3).

• Exempt household and livestock wells, drilled once registration is approved
• Hensell Sand wells in the TWDB grids listed in Rule 9.3.1, with the Upper Glen Rose sealed off
• Wells on 2- to 10-acre tracts under a Combined Drilling and Operating Permit capped at 1 acre-foot a year
• Replacement wells under Section 8, with the original well plugged
• Pump and pressure tank swaps (a larger well or pump on an exempt well needs a registration amendment first, Rule 6.3(m))
• Capping a well while its pump is out for later re-equipping, unless deteriorated casing would let water strata commingle (Rule 12.5.1)
• Plugging deteriorated and abandoned wells and filing the plugging report
• Total coliform and E. coli sampling through an accredited laboratory

• Target layer: the management plan groups the Trinity as Upper (Glen Rose Limestone and Paluxy Sand), Middle (Hensell Sand) and Lower (Hosston Conglomerate). A February 2022 study bound into the plan, covering mainly southwestern Bell County, puts the Middle and Lower Trinity about 900 and 1,100 feet below land surface at its study area's eastern edge and under 100 and 200 feet near the Lampasas River in its northwest.
• Seals: in the Rule 9.3.1 grids, the Upper Glen Rose seal described under permits means a wider bore, packers and an annular plug, so check that a quote includes them.
• Pump size: every management zone on the Rule 6.3 table limits an exempt well to a 1½-inch column pipe and 17.36 gallons per minute, with windmill wells allowed 2-inch casing for the sucker rod assembly. Ask the district before pricing anything larger on an exempt registration.
• District fees: the August 26, 2026 schedule lists no fee for exempt-well applications and a $150 fee for a Level I permit (up to and including 1 acre-foot a year, issued as a combination permit). Rule 13.1 says applications are not accepted for filing or processing until every applicable fee has been received.

• Exemption, Rule 6.3(a): no district permit is needed for a well whose sole use is domestic or watering livestock or poultry, on a tract over 10 acres, if its drilling, completion or equipment keeps it incapable of yielding more than 25,000 gallons of groundwater daily; every groundwater district has to provide that exemption under Texas Water Code 36.117(b)(1). On 10 acres or less it holds only if the well serves those uses on that tract, the tract was platted, met an exception to platting or was otherwise lawfully configured at 10 acres or less before March 1, 2004, and no further subdivision of it took place between that date and the drilling, completion or equipping of the well.
• Exempt-well spacing: after November 1, 2022, a Rule 6.3(a) well must sit at least 75 feet from the property line and 150 feet from other wells producing from the same aquifer. Wells in different aquifers fall under Rule 9.5.3, whose reduced spacing comes with logging, borehole, cementing, notice and affidavit steps, and exceptions, including measuring from a public road's center under Rule 9.5.5(b), carry their own conditions and procedures in Rule 9.5.5; ask the district before relying on one.
• Permitted wells: under Rule 6.6.4 the Board may grant a Combined Drilling and Operating Permit only for a well on a tract of 2 to 10 acres producing no more than 1 acre-foot a year. Rule 5.4(f) has every permitted well report pumpage monthly, and Rule 5.5.1 requires a meter on permitted non-exempt wells. Wells in existence before February 1, 2002 may use an alternative measuring method approved by the district under that rule, and Rule 5.5.7 lets the owner of any existing non-exempt well apply for one, which the General Manager may authorize if the owner demonstrates it can accurately measure the groundwater withdrawn. Reporting is still required with an approved alternative method.
• Hensell completions, Rule 9.3.1: wells drilled to produce from the Hensell Sand in TWDB grids 58-03-3, 58-03-6, 58-03-9, 58-04-1, 58-04-2, 58-04-5, 58-04-7 and 58-04-8 must be completed by the minimum alternative construction specifications, in line with TDLR's official notice of May 21, 2003. The Upper Glen Rose must be sealed off by drilling a borehole whose diameter exceeds the casing's outside diameter by 3 inches, setting packers necessary and sufficient to hold cement and placing at least 25 feet of cement or bentonite plug in the annulus from the top of the Hensell Sand, and after drilling and pump installation the driller and pump installer must assess water quality to confirm injurious water is not commingling.
• Completion check, Rule 9.3.3: no later than 45 days after a well is completed, the well owner and the pump installer or driller must coordinate with district staff on a Well Completion Inspection and Water Quality Assessment confirming the well meets the district's exempt-well standards or its drilling permit. The rule lists what the inspection may cover.
• Well logs: Rule 4.2.4 has drillers give the district the log, plus any available geophysical logs, at the time they submit it to TDLR. Under 16 TAC 76.70(1), the deadline is the 60th day after the drilling, deepening or alteration is completed or ceases, and copies go electronically to TDLR, to the well's owner or whoever had it drilled, and to the district.
• State siting: 16 TAC 76.100 sets minimum distances from septic absorption fields, livestock and poultry yards, sewage collection facilities and other contamination sources, with its own exceptions and an alternative cementing route outside the Edwards Aquifer. Clearwater Rule 9.2 says the district rules prevail where 76.100 conflicts with them.
• Licensing: without a TDLR license, nobody may act as a water well driller (Occupations Code 1901.151) or pump installer (Sec. 1902.151). Those chapters' definitions leave out someone drilling, or installing or repairing a pump, for their own use on property they own, and an assistant who is directly supervised by a licensee and not primarily responsible for the job; 16 TAC 76.30 and Secs. 1901.161 and 1902.161 list other exemptions. Because Form 1 asks for license numbers, talk to the district before an owner drills.
• Plugging: Rule 12.5.2 says a deteriorated or abandoned well must be plugged following TDLR's rules in 16 TAC chapter 76, and it is the landowner's responsibility to see that it is. Rule 1.1(a) calls a well abandoned after six consecutive months without use, but counts a non-deteriorated well as in use if its casing, pump and pump column are in good condition or it has been capped. Using combined or alternative procedures instead of those in 16 TAC 76.100-76.105 counts as a variance request; Rule 12.5.3 sets who may ask, when alternatives qualify, what cannot justify one and how approval works, so contact TDLR and the district before starting such work.

• The management plan names the Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone) and Trinity as the county's two primary groundwater sources: the Edwards (BFZ) is the source of Salado Springs and is the City of Salado's primary supply, the Trinity is the main source in much of western Bell County, and its deepest subdivision serves or has served Rogers, Holland and Bartlett.
• About 40 percent of wells registered with the district, the plan says, are in eastern Bell County and draw from the alluvium, the Lake Waco, Kemp, Ozan or Pecan Gap formations, the Austin Chalk or the Buda Limestone.
• The plan's appendix on county groundwater places the Edwards outcrop generally west of I-35, with water quality rapidly reduced a relatively short distance east of IH 35. It says the Trinity underlies all of Bell County and that, east of IH 35, Upper and Middle Trinity water deteriorates while Lower Trinity water remains usable for most purposes over most of the county.
• TWDB's statewide aquifer pages call Edwards (BFZ) groundwater hard but fresh, under 500 milligrams per liter of total dissolved solids, and Trinity water fresh but very hard in the outcrop, growing slightly to moderately saline as depth to the aquifer increases.

Belton · Killeen · Temple · Harker Heights · Nolanville · Salado · Holland · Rogers · Troy · Little River-Academy · Morgan's Point Resort · Bartlett (Bell County part) · Pendleton