Water Well Drilling in Cochran County, TX

Cochran County’s Big Well File Is Mostly Agricultural

Cochran County has 2,406 submitted driller records, which sounds like an unusually deep pool of evidence for a property buyer. The catch is in the use column: 2,156 of those records are irrigation wells. Only 80 are domestic. A calculation that blends the two groups may be mathematically correct and still be the wrong starting point for a house, barndominium, or rural homestead.

The irrigation history matters because it shows how heavily groundwater appears in the county’s working landscape. It can also help identify old drilling activity around a tract. What it cannot do is make an agricultural completion a household comparable. Production demand, equipment, pump selection, electrical service, and construction decisions may be very different.

Use the Texas water well records lookup while screening land around Morton, Whiteface, Lehman, or Bledsoe. When a property becomes a serious purchase or building candidate, a Pre-Drill Intelligence Report can narrow the comparison set to nearby domestic records and organize the questions that public data cannot answer. TurnKey Wells reviews records; it does not drill wells or guarantee field results.

What the 80 Domestic Depth Records Actually Show

The domestic subset is small enough to deserve caution but large enough to provide a useful research baseline. Its median total depth is 206 feet. The middle half of the filings runs from 190 to 240 feet, and 90 percent are at or below 260 feet. The recorded range is 90 to 340 feet, with an average of 211.0 feet.

Those figures describe historical filings across a county, not the depth of the next well. The low end should not be treated as a bargain-case budget, and the high end does not define a hard limit. Coordinates, ground elevation, intended use, record age, completion details, and the conditions encountered by a driller can all determine whether a nearby record belongs in the comparison set.

Pump-depth evidence is especially thin. Only two domestic rows contain a usable pump setting, so this page does not present those values as a county benchmark. That gap is useful in its own way: it reminds buyers that total depth is only one part of a working system and that public filings will not always supply every number needed for a budget.

• Total Cochran County SDR rows: 2,406
• Usable domestic total-depth logs: 80
• Median domestic total depth: 206 ft
• Domestic total-depth middle band: 190 to 240 ft
• Domestic 90th-percentile marker: 260 ft
• Recorded domestic total-depth range: 90 to 340 ft
• Average domestic total depth: 211.0 ft
• Usable domestic pump-depth logs: 2, too few for a representative benchmark

Irrigation Records Provide Context, Not a Residential Quote

The 2,156 irrigation records average 227.0 feet, with filed depths ranging from 10 to 530 feet. That average is not far from the domestic average, but the similarity should not be overread. An irrigation well may be designed around an agricultural production requirement that bears little resemblance to household demand.

Other use groups show why sorting is essential. Cochran County has 51 monitor records averaging 175.8 feet, 50 stock records averaging 205.1 feet, and 20 test-well records averaging 210.8 feet. It also has 20 environmental soil borings averaging only 12.8 feet. All of those may be legitimate entries, but they were not created to answer the same property question.

Start a household comparison with domestic use, reliable coordinates, and original records. Bring in irrigation, stock, monitor, and test entries only when their location and purpose add relevant context. A single countywide average would hide that distinction and give the smallest, shallowest categories more influence than they deserve.

Morton, Whiteface, Lehman, and Bledsoe Are Labels, Not Boundaries

The local file includes Morton, Whiteface, Lehman, Bledsoe, and several capitalization or spelling variants. It also contains place names outside Cochran County. A mailing label can describe an address or service area rather than the precise well location, and an inconsistent label can split records that belong in the same geographic search.

For property work, coordinates and well use should control the first comparison lane. City names are helpful for orientation, but they are not a substitute for plotting the actual completions. Two filings labeled Morton might sit miles apart, and one could serve irrigation while the other supplies a residence.

Incomplete and unusual records should be flagged, not quietly forced into a clean story. A 90-foot domestic filing or a very deep irrigation record may be accurate, miscoded, or simply unlike the property being studied. The right response is to inspect the source record and decide whether the completion truly belongs in the tract-level evidence.

Ogallala Labels Dominate the Groundwater Database

The groundwater database contains 275 Cochran County rows. Of those, 265 are labeled Ogallala. Five are labeled Edwards-Trinity (High Plains), four carry a combined Ogallala and Edwards-Trinity (High Plains) label, and one is labeled Dockum. The Texas Ogallala aquifer planning guide provides regional context for the dominant label.

That distribution is strong county-level evidence, but it is not a tract-level guarantee. A historical database label does not promise the interval a new well will use, where water will stand, how much the well will yield, or what a laboratory will find. Mixed and uncommon labels are another reason to review nearby records instead of turning the county majority into a property claim.

Aquifer questions become useful when they are tied to coordinates, original completion reports, and the intended project. A licensed driller can then evaluate those records alongside current site conditions. County statistics frame that conversation; they do not replace it.

District and Permit Questions Depend on the Property

Cochran County’s name alone does not settle groundwater jurisdiction or the rules that apply to a project. Enter the exact property in the Texas groundwater conservation district lookup, then confirm current registration, spacing, permitting, replacement-well, production, and plugging requirements directly with the authority returned for the tract.

Do that check before relying on an old contractor note, a seller’s memory, or a neighboring landowner’s experience. Boundaries and requirements can change, and two properties in the same county do not automatically share the same answer. The legal description and site coordinates should match the parcel being reviewed.

The database also holds 164 plugged-well rows assigned to Cochran County. That count establishes local history only. It does not prove an abandoned or plugged well exists on a particular tract. For an improved property, the Texas water-well disclosure guide can help organize seller records, service history, equipment details, water tests, and questions that still need field verification.

Water Quality and Yield Require Current Evidence

A 206-foot median and an Ogallala label do not tell a buyer what will come from a faucet. Water chemistry can vary with the producing interval, well condition, construction, nearby activity, treatment equipment, and the plumbing after the pressure tank. An operating well needs a current sample analyzed by a qualified laboratory for the property and intended use.

Ask when the system was last serviced, how the sample was collected, and whether any treatment equipment was bypassed. An older report may be valuable history without being a current answer. A planned new well follows a different sequence because its actual water cannot be tested until the well exists and is properly completed.

Quantity is separate from quality. Neither a filed total depth nor a nearby irrigation record promises household yield. Public evidence can identify patterns and sharpen the questions, but field measurements and qualified contractor guidance must establish present performance.

Price the Complete System, Not a County Average

The domestic depth statistics are planning references, not contractor prices. A complete Cochran County budget may include mobilization, drilling, casing, completion materials, pump and controls, pressure equipment, trenching, electrical work, storage, testing, treatment, freeze protection, and cleanup. Rural access, utility distance, and equipment clearance may affect the site plan before drilling begins.

The Texas water well drilling cost guide explains the categories behind a headline estimate. Ask each licensed contractor what is included, what remains an allowance, how additional footage is priced, who coordinates power and testing, and what happens if the completed well needs different equipment than the original proposal assumed.

Existing systems need the same discipline. Low pressure or poor performance might involve the pump, pressure tank, controls, power supply, water level, well condition, or more than one issue. Records can establish history, but diagnosis and repair pricing belong to qualified professionals working from the current system.

Nearby County Pages for Regional Context

Published West Texas and High Plains county pages show how quickly the mix of well uses, aquifer labels, and recorded depths changes. They are useful comparisons, not replacements for Cochran County records:

• Water well drilling records in neighboring Bailey County
• Water well drilling records in irrigation-heavy Castro County
• Water well drilling records in Andrews County to the southeast

Turn the Cochran County File Into a Property Decision

This page is for buyers, landowners, agents, and rural sellers working around Morton, Whiteface, Lehman, Bledsoe, and the acreage between them. The county file has substantial history, but its value depends on separating 80 domestic records from the much larger irrigation lane.

If you are screening several properties, begin with the Free Well Check. If one tract has reached the inspection, negotiation, financing, or building stage, use the Pre-Drill Intelligence Report to assemble the nearby evidence and unresolved questions in one place.

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