Before anyone drills a water well in British Columbia, many people start by looking up the neighbours’ wells on GWELLS. I do it too. Just don’t read the records as any kind of promise. They are what I call helpful indicators.
What the drilling records can tell you. GWELLS records usually show the completed depth of the nearby wells, what was drilled through on the way down (the lithology), the water level when the well was completed (the static water level), and an estimate of what the well was producing at the time. That’s real information, and it’s worth reading before you decide to drill or to buy a rural property in British Columbia.
What a well log can’t tell you. The yield on most records is the driller’s airlifted estimate on the day the water well was completed, not the result of a pumping test. A well’s pin on the map is often approximate at best, and older wells may be missing entirely or shown on a neighbouring property. Maybe the property has since been subdivided. Who knows.
The ground itself can change too. The water-bearing layer under one property can thin out or sit under clay or till, just a few feet away. And a well log is a record of one day. A well that produced 20 gallons a minute five years ago may now produce only 5 gallons a minute. The only way to know what a well is producing now is to do a pump test.
This is why most municipalities and regional districts in British Columbia require a pump test or an engineer’s report before they issue a building permit. Very few will rely on a GWELLS drilling record alone.
The Note: A nearby well log tells you what happened on someone else’s property. Yours is a new question. Treat the records as a starting map, not an answer. They are best at telling you what to ask; the answer comes from the ground under your site.
Who should pay attention: Anyone planning to drill a new water well, buy rural land with or without a well, or decide where to drill a well on a property. People often think a drilling report is all they need when they buy a rural property in BC. What they need is a flow test.
What to do next: Read the three or four closest well records for depth, yield, water level, and the material drilled through. Then speak to a registered local well driller or a well-siting professional before making any decisions based on the neighbouring well logs.
