Well Drilling in Erath County, TX

• Requests can come from anywhere in the county. The Census Bureau's 2020 place-by-county list shows six places with territory in Erath County: the cities of Stephenville and Dublin, part of the city of Hico, and the census-designated places of Bluff Dale, Huckabay and Lingleville.
• Bought land with a registered well on it? District Rule 5.2(k) says the new owner should apply for a registration amendment within 60 calendar days of the ownership change, and the district's realtor notice says the transfer costs nothing.

• New domestic and livestock wells, registered with the Middle Trinity GCD before the rig arrives
• Irrigation, commercial and other wells that need a district operating permit and must be drilled within 30 feet of the location or alternative location the permit specifies
• Pump, pressure tank and drop-pipe work by TDLR-licensed pump installers
• Replacement wells, filed with the district as an amendment to the existing registration or permit under Rule 6.1
• Plugging abandoned, deteriorated or replaced wells as district Rule 11.5(b) requires, with the plugging report filed afterward, and capping a non-deteriorated well when the rules allow it

• Calculator basis: this site's cost calculator multiplies the depth you enter by a per-foot rate ($25–$65 when geology is unknown) and adds $200–$500 for a permit, $900–$2,500 for an installed pump and $400–$1,500 for a pressure tank. Those figures come from Angi, HomeGuide and HomeAdvisor national cost pages, not Erath County bids, so plan around a driller's written quote.
• District paperwork: an operating permit application, needed only for a non-exempt well, goes in with a $200 deposit per well, which the district's forms page says is refunded within 30 days of the district receiving the state driller's report.
• Casing size and spacing: Rule 7.4(a) keeps a new permitted well away from existing registered or permitted wells, and from other proposed wells, by casing diameter, from 300 feet for casing up to 4 inches to 1,000 feet at 10 inches or more. Under Rule 7.4(d), the board may grant an exception for a well producing from a different aquifer or subdivision only after the applicant gives written notice to all owners of existing permitted or registered wells inside the distance and a public hearing is held. Rule 10.2(h) has that notice sent by certified mail not less than 14 days before the hearing, carrying the information the rule cross-references from Rule 10.2(a), the nature of the exception sought, and information telling each recipient that the proposed well would sit closer to their well than the Rule 7.4 minimum distances; confirm the notice contents with the district before mailing. An applicant may also present signed no-objection waivers from every landowner and well owner inside the distance; the general manager may then waive certain spacing requirements or take the request to the board.
• Grout depth: the standard annular seal under 16 TAC 76.100(e) fills an annulus at least 3 inches wider than the casing from the surface to no less than 10 feet down, with cement slurry, bentonite grout, or 8 feet of granular sodium bentonite under a 2-foot cement barrier. The alternative siting methods in 76.100(b) call for a much deeper seal; the septic FAQ below gives the conditions for moving closer to contamination sources.
• Property-line encroachment: under 76.100(b)(2), a well cemented by positive displacement from at least 100 feet to the surface, or tremie pressure filled from 100 feet to the surface with an annular space 3 inches larger than the casing's outside diameter, may come within 5 feet of the adjacent property line. For a well less than 100 feet deep, the seal goes to the top of the producing layer, and in what the rule calls shallow, unconfined aquifers having artesian head it need not go below the top of the water production zone. Ask for any such grouting as its own quote line.
• Old wells: the district says it caps or plugs wells holding less than 100 feet of standing water free of charge on the homeowner's behalf.

• Register first: under Rule 5.2, no one may drill, operate, modify, complete, change the type or location of use of, plug, abandon or substantially alter the size of a well in the district without registering it, even if it is exempt from permitting. If staff find the well excluded or exempt under Rule 5.4, work may begin once the approved registration is received; if not, no one may drill, equip, complete or substantially alter it until the permit or amendment is issued.
• Household exemption, Rule 5.4(a)(1)-(2): no operating permit is needed for a well used solely for domestic use, livestock use or poultry and drilled, equipped or completed so it cannot produce more than 25,000 gallons a day, on a tract larger than 10 acres. On 10 acres or less, an Erath County tract must also have been platted before May 11, 2004 and not further subdivided after that date and before the well is drilled, completed or equipped. The district's registration form marks a permit as required above 17 gallons per minute of maximum pumping capacity.
• Exemption limits: domestic use excludes water for activities for which consideration is given or whose product is sold, confinements such as ponds holding over 50,000 gallons, non-closed geothermal systems and public water systems; livestock use means open-range watering of livestock, exotic livestock, game or fur-bearing animals and excludes public water systems and concentrated animal feeding operations. Rule 5.4(g) denies the exemption to a well supplying a subdivision that needs plat approval under Local Government Code chapter 232. Exempt wells must still be registered, equipped to prevent groundwater escape and pollution, and sited under Rule 7.3.
• Operating permits: per the district's forms, the application goes in with a complete registration form and the deposit, must be notarized, and must arrive by the posted agenda deadline for the next monthly permit hearing; no well may be drilled until the board approves it. Under Rule 5.5(c), an initial permit runs five years, and production must begin within nine months unless one extension of up to six months is granted.
• Siting for a water well, 16 TAC 76.100(a): 150 feet from concentrated contamination sources such as existing or proposed livestock or poultry yards, cemeteries, pesticide mixing sites and privies; 100 feet from an existing or proposed septic absorption field or spray area or a dry litter poultry facility; 50 feet from any water-tight sewage or liquid-waste collection facility; and 50 feet from a property line, provided the well also meets the source distances. The property-line distance does not bind the driller where a groundwater district's rules regulate spacing, where property restrictions regulate spacing of wells and on-site sewage systems, or where the owner uses public wastewater service; ask the district which applies.
• Who may drill and install pumps: Occupations Code 1901.151 and 1902.151 require a TDLR license to act or offer to act as a driller or pump installer. The definitions exclude a person drilling, or installing or repairing pumps, on the person's own property for the person's own use, and a helper under a licensee's direct supervision who is not primarily responsible; 16 TAC 76.30(3) extends the pump exclusion to leased or rented property used for one's own use. An owner who drills still has to register with the district.
• Well reports: no later than the 60th day after drilling, deepening or other alteration of a well is completed or stops, 16 TAC 76.70(1) has the driller file the State of Texas Well Report with TDLR electronically and send copies to the owner or person the well was drilled for and to the groundwater district. The owner or the person the well was drilled for may ask TDLR by certified mail to keep the log confidential (Occupations Code 1901.251(c)).
• Plugging: 16 TAC 76.104 sets the methods, which vary with well type, diameter, standing water and water quality; TDLR's abandoned-wells page links the specifications. District Rule 11.5(b) requires registration before or with plugging. Under 16 TAC 76.70(3), the person who plugs a well sends the State of Texas Plugging Report to TDLR within 30 days after plugging is complete, and also delivers, transmits or mails copies to the groundwater conservation district and to the owner or person for whom the well was plugged. District Rule 11.5(c) separately has a driller, licensed pump installer or well owner who plugs an abandoned or deteriorated well submit the report to the district and TDLR within 30 days of completion.

• Trinity Aquifer: TWDB describes the Trinity as a major aquifer made up of smaller aquifers in the Trinity Group, including the Antlers, Glen Rose, Paluxy, Twin Mountains, Travis Peak, Hensell and Hosston, built of limestones, sands, clays, gravels and conglomerates.
• Erath County units: the district's management plan lists all seven as Trinity subdivisions in its Erath County table and notes that the county's northern portion also contains the Twin Mountains. Its geology page has an Erath County cross-section showing where the water-bearing sands and limestones lie shallow and where they dip deeper.
• Water quality: TWDB's statewide summary says Trinity water is generally fresh but very hard in the outcrop, and sulfate and chloride tend to increase with depth.
• Depth evidence: a driller's log records the strata penetrated, water-bearing zones and casing (Occupations Code 1901.251). TDLR points to TWDB's well reporting system for wells drilled after 2002 and to TCEQ for older ones; TWDB says mailed-in reports from before its electronic system are not included and that well locations in its driller-report database are not verified by state staff.

Stephenville · Dublin · Hico · Bluff Dale · Huckabay · Lingleville