Water Well Drilling in San Augustine County, TX

San Augustine County Water Well Planning Starts With the Right Record Mix

San Augustine County is the kind of East Texas market where private water is still part of normal land planning. Around San Augustine, Denning, Macune, White Rock, Bland Lake, and rural tracts toward the Angelina and Sabine forest edges, the practical question is usually not whether wells exist. It is which nearby wells actually match a household project and which records need to be screened out before anyone prices a new drill.

The raw county database shows 945 submitted driller records, but that total blends household wells with a heavy oilfield and support-water footprint. The submitted record set includes 331 rig-supply wells, 46 industrial wells, 43 monitor wells, and 38 fracking-supply wells. Those records matter for local history, but they are not the right benchmark for a home on acreage. For residential planning, the domestic subset carries more weight.

TurnKey Wells uses county pages as the first pass, not the final answer. The Free Well Check helps confirm whether registered wells are nearby. The Pre-Drill Intelligence Report narrows the search to the actual tract, comparable domestic logs, groundwater context, and nearby well history before a buyer or landowner starts calling drillers.

What the San Augustine County Domestic Well Data Actually Shows

The cleaner household signal comes from 419 domestic records in the county database. Of those, 300 have usable domestic pump-depth logs. Inside that usable subset, the median domestic pump depth is 105 feet. The practical middle band runs about 80 to 160 feet, and the upper planning marker reaches about 200 feet at the 90th percentile.

That profile is meaningfully friendlier than the countywide mix. The average cleaned total depth across all well uses is about 268 feet, while the average domestic total depth is closer to 210 feet. The domestic pump-depth average lands around 188 feet. In other words, if someone budgets a house well off the full county blend, they can easily overread what the residential market is doing because the industrial and rig-supply side of the record is deeper and noisier.

• Total submitted driller records: 945
• Domestic records: 419 total, with 300 usable domestic pump-depth logs
• Median domestic pump depth: 105 ft
• Practical domestic middle band: about 80 to 160 ft
• Upper planning marker: about 200 ft at the 90th percentile
• Plugged-well records: 147 county records in the plugging dataset
• Major skew sources: rig supply, industrial, monitor, and fracking-supply wells

Aquifer Signals in San Augustine County

The groundwater database points most often to Carrizo-Wilcox in San Augustine County, with 73 GWDB wells carrying that aquifer tag and an average recorded depth near 230 feet. The next strongest county signals are Yegua-Jackson with 40 wells averaging about 144 feet, and Sparta with 34 wells averaging about 215 feet.

That aquifer mix is useful because it explains why the county is not one simple one-depth story. Carrizo-Wilcox is a strong East Texas planning signal, but it does not mean every homesite will target the same interval. San Augustine County sits in sand-and-clay country where the productive section can shift across short distances. One tract may finish in a shallower usable sand. Another may need a different completion target or more casing discipline to stay out of poor-quality or unstable intervals.

For a land buyer, that means the right question is not “What is the county average?” The right question is “What do the nearest comparable domestic logs show, and do they line up with the same aquifer trend on this property?” That is where county pages stop and tract-level due diligence starts.

Why the Raw County Average Can Mislead Here

San Augustine County is small enough that one noisy use category can bend the countywide story fast. A household well and a rig-supply well are not built for the same job, and their costs, depths, and production targets are not interchangeable. The same problem applies to industrial and monitor wells. A buyer who sees a deeper non-domestic record nearby and assumes every house well will need the same scope can overshoot the budget. The reverse mistake is just as bad.

This county also has enough oilfield-support history that the database needs interpretation, not just counting. The raw county record mix is valuable because it shows the area has real drilling history and an established groundwater footprint. But residential planning should still start with the domestic band, then narrow to the nearest comparable wells by use, age, and geography.

What This Means for Property Buyers and Landowners

If you are buying rural acreage in San Augustine County, the domestic median around 105 feet is a useful anchor, but it is not a quote. It tells you that many household projects in the county are manageable relative to deeper Texas corridors. It does not tell you whether your tract has shallow usable water, how much casing will be needed, whether treatment is likely, or whether an older well already on the property should be inspected, repaired, or disclosed.

The county also has 147 plugged-well records. That matters during due diligence because older homesites, timber tracts, and inherited family land can carry inactive or abandoned well history that buyers do not see from the driveway. If a property already has an existing well, the records should be checked before closing and before anyone assumes the system is still compliant or useful.

For sellers and agents, that is where the Texas water well disclosure workflow becomes practical rather than theoretical. If a well exists, used or unused, the records need to be understood before the transaction paperwork gets sloppy.

Budgeting a Full Residential Well Project in San Augustine County

A finished residential water-well project in San Augustine County should still be budgeted as a full system, not as a per-foot drilling guess. A practical planning range is generally $25,000 to $45,000+ once drilling, casing, pump equipment, pressure system components, trenching, electrical coordination, water testing, and site conditions are counted together.

The county’s domestic data supports a lower-depth planning conversation than some deeper Carrizo-Wilcox counties, but nobody should promise a final job number from the county median alone. Access, casing length, completion interval, treatment needs, and pump sizing all move the project. A shallower well on clean ground can stay efficient. A deeper or more complex completion can push the job well past the starting range.

• Per-foot planning range: $65 to $120 per foot
• Pump and pressure system: $3,000 to $8,000
• Permits and local filing costs: $500 to $1,500
• Water treatment: quote after testing, not before
• Full residential project planning range: $25,000 to $45,000+

Permitting, Disclosure, and Local Rule Questions

Permit assumptions in East Texas should always be confirmed for the exact parcel before drilling begins. Groundwater rules are not uniform across Texas, and county pages should not replace a parcel-level permit check. A licensed driller should confirm whether the tract falls under district-specific groundwater requirements or general state drilling rules, what setbacks apply, and what filings need to happen before the rig is scheduled.

TurnKey Wells is not the drilling contractor. We review well records, help landowners interpret the groundwater picture, and connect customers with vetted licensed drillers who can quote and perform the field work. That distinction matters because planning and disclosure work can begin before a drilling contractor is chosen, especially when a buyer is still deciding whether the land makes sense.

Water Quality and Completion Concerns

San Augustine County wells still need current testing even when the depth profile looks favorable. The local groundwater mix can produce iron, manganese, acidity, tannin staining, fine sediment, and other East Texas treatment issues depending on interval and construction quality. The GWDB well table in the local database does not currently show water-quality availability flags for this county, so a fresh lab test tells you more than old assumptions.

Completion quality matters too. Sand-heavy intervals can be productive, but they also demand careful screen and completion choices if a driller is trying to protect long-term performance. That is another reason not to treat one neighboring well as proof that every nearby well will behave the same way.

Planning a New Well vs. Evaluating an Existing One

New-well planning and existing-well due diligence are related, but they are not the same task. If the property has no well, the key work is comparing nearby domestic logs, screening out non-comparable records, verifying local drilling rules, and building a budget that reflects actual residential data rather than oilfield noise.

If the property already has a well, the questions shift. Is the well registered? Is there a driller’s log on file? Does the age of the pump system make replacement likely? Does the property carry old plugged or abandoned well history? Has the water been tested recently? The Free Well Check is a useful first screen. The Pre-Drill Intelligence Report is the better planning tool when money is about to be committed.

San Augustine County Service Area

TurnKey Wells supports well-record review, buyer due diligence, pre-drill planning, and driller matching across San Augustine County, including San Augustine, Denning, Macune, White Rock, Bland Lake, and surrounding rural acreage.

Nearby County Well Planning Pages

If you are comparing San Augustine County against nearby East Texas markets, these pages help frame the regional groundwater picture:

• Water well drilling in Sabine County
• Water well drilling in Angelina County
• Water well drilling in Nacogdoches County