Text Search Help

The following is an index to help for the well report text search pages.  Click on an item in the list to access each topic within this page.

How do I perform a "Text Search" for well reports?

Search Fields

• County
• Tax Parcel Number
• Township and Range
• Sections
• 1/4 Section
• 1/4-1/4 Section
• Well Owner Name
• Well Street Address
• Well Type
• Well Subtype
• Well Tag Id
• Well Depth
• Well Casing Diameter
• Well Completion Date
• Well Report Received Date
• Notice of Intent Number
• Well Report Id
• Watershed (WRIA)
• Sort By
• Results per Page

How do I do a "Text Search" for Well Reports?

The "Text Search" offers several ways to find one or more well reports. You can search by township, section and range. You can add additional narrowing information if you wish. Or you can skip the township, section and range fields and fill in any other information. If you know the tax parcel number, the well tag ID, or the Well Report ID, fill in the number and go directly to that well report.

Once you have specified the criteria, click on the "Search" button. If you want to erase the criteria you have entered and start fresh, click on the "Reset" button at the bottom of the page.

County

If you don't know the Township or if you want to limit the specified Township to a certain county, you can use the County selection. This will enable you to choose 1 of the 36 counties in Washington. You can elect to ignore the county selection by leaving it blank. Search example: You could specify both the Owner Name and County to locate the well reports within a particular county that shared the same owner name.

Tax Parcel Number

This field allows you to search for well reports associated with a specific tax parcel number. Typically only more recent well reports have had their tax parcel numbers recorded. This practice began in earnest on January 1, 2000 in response to a new legal requirement.

Each County Assessor and/or Auditor offices are responsible for defining their own tax parcel number systems. Thus, a tax parcel number may be valid in more than one county. Although not required, we recommend specifying the county when searching for a tax parcel number. Enter the exact tax parcel number or any portion you deem useful. The use of special characters in a tax parcel number, like spaces and dashes, may or may not be in the database. How it is in the Well Reports database depends on the practice of the driller who filled out the Well Report and the practice of the data entry operator.

Township and Range

Sections

Each Township is further divided into a grid of 36 sections. Each section is approximately 1 square mile. Click the check box beneath each (one or more) section you wish to search. About 5% of the townships use section numbers greater than 36. If you want to include these in your search, click the box for greater than 36. At the bottom of the section grid are two choices. One turns on (checks) all the sections in that Township. The other clears all the checks that you may have already turned on.

1/4 Section

Each section is divided into four 1/4 sections called a Quarter. They are defined by their quadrant name. NW is for the Northwest quadrant of the Section, NE for the Northeast quadrant of the Section, SW for the Southwest of the Section and SE for the Southeast of the Section.

1/4-1/4 Section

Each 1/4 section (aka "Quarter") is further divided into four equal parts (about 40 acres each) called a Quarter-Quarter. They are also defined by their quadrant name. NW is for the Northwest quadrant of the Northwest Quarter, NE for the Northeast quadrant of the Northeast Quarter, SW for the Southwest quadrant of the Southwest Quarter, and SE for the Southeast quadrant of the Southeast Quarter.

The Public Land Survery notation places the Quarter-Quarter value before the Quarter. For example, SW-NW would read as follows: The SW Quarter-Quarter of the NW Quarter.

Well Owner Name

The owner name is generally the person who had the well constructed. Enter the first, last, or first and last name of the person for which you wish to search. The system will automatically return all names that contain the text you enter. For example, if you enter "A SMITH" the system will bring back records such as "A C SMITH, "ANDREW SMITH", and "ART SMITH". You will also then get other Smiths that have an "A" somewhere in their first or middle name. This was done so that you could search for "WALT" and find the right well report listed as "WALTER".

Well Street Address

The Well Street Address is the address of the property when and where the well was constructed. This information may or may not be the current address of the property due to address changes. The system will automatically return all addresses of wells that contain the text you enter. For example, if you enter "1234 Adams St" the system will bring back records that contain this string somewhere in the address.

Well Type

Use this search results criterion to specify what type of well report you want the search results to include. The choices are:

• All Well Reports,
• Only Water Well Reports,
• Only Resource Protection Well Reports *, or
• Decommissioned Well Reports **

* Resource Protection Well Reports includes: Soil Boring, Environmental, and Ground Source Heat Loop (Grounding) Well Reports.
** Decommissioned Well Reports include Abandonments.

Well Subtype

Well Subtypes are a subset of well types. Selecting a well subtype will further refine the search results based on the selected subtype. Well Subtypes were not recorded on all well reports and thus may limit the search results by including the subtype.

Tag Number on the Well (Well Tag ID)

After June 1993, wells constructed or altered may have had a metal tag placed on them. Each tag is inscribed with a unique number. This field allows you to locate an individual well report using this reference number. The field consists of three letters followed by three numbers. Caution: A well tag ID search can yield up to six well report matches. On the rare occasion when this occurs, one or the other is wrong. Without inspecting the well, we are unable to determine which well report has incorrectly reported the well tag ID. The well tag statute was developed in 1993 and the rule became effective (mandatory) in April 1998.

Well Depth

The Completed Depth is the finished depth of a well. Search only to the nearest foot.

• To specify the range of depths for which you are searching. Enter the beginning range in the field on the left and the ending depth in the field on the right.
• To find only well reports with a specific depth, enter the same depth in both fields.
• To find well reports under a specific depth, supply a single depth in the field on the right.
• To find well reports over a specific depth, supply a single depth in the field on the left.

Well Diameter

The Well Diameter is the diameter in inches of a well. Search only to the nearest inch.

• To specify the range of diameters for which you are searching. Enter the beginning range in the field on the left and the ending depth in the field on the right.
• To find only well reports with a specific diameter, enter the same diameter in both fields.
• To find well reports under a specific diameter, supply a single diameter in the field on the right.
• To find well reports over a specific diameter, supply a single diameter in the field on the left.

Well Completion Date

The date the type of well action (e.g., new, deepened, abandoned, etc.) reported on the well report was completed.

• To specify the date range for which you are searching, enter a beginning date in the field on the left and an end date date in the field on the right using a MM/DD/YYYY format.
• To find only well reports completed on a specific date, enter the same date in both fields.
• To find well reports before a specific date,enter a single date in the field on the left.
• To find well reports after a specific date,enter a single date in the field on the right.

Well Report Received Date

The date the well report report was received by the Water Resources Program. The further you go back in time, the less likely it is that a received date was stamped onto the well report.

• To specify the date range for which you are searching, enter a beginning date in the field on the left and an end date date in the field on the right using a MM/DD/YYYY format.
• To find only well reports completed on a specific date, enter the same date in both fields.
• To find well reports before a specific date, enter a single date in the field on the right.
• To find well reports after a specific date, enter a single date in the field on the left.

Notice of Intent

Well drillers file a notice of intent to construct a well called a start card. These are given a "Notice of Intent" (also called "Start Card") number. This field allows you to locate well reports using these reference numbers. There may be one or more well report for each start card number. It is more often the case that more than one well report will be associated with a start card when it is for resource protection wells than when it is for water wells. The letter prefix on the NOI means the following:

• W is for Water Well,
• R is for Resource Well,
• S is for Soil Boring Well,
• D is for Dewatering Well,
• A is for Decommissioned Well or Abandoned well,
• E is for Environmental test sample where no casing is left in the ground, and
• G is for ground source heat loop or grounding well.

Well Report ID

Every well report is assigned a unique number to identify it. The well report ID will show up in the search results but may not show on the Well Report image.

A word of caution: If the record and its image have been deleted then this unique identifier will no longer be present.

Watershed (WRIA)

You can search by the watershed boundary name. The dropdown box lists the watersheds alphabetically by the name of the WRIA. The term WRIA means watershed inventory area. A watershed or WRIA is a region that drains into a river or river system. If you select a watershed using the dropdown box on the Map Search Page, you will be navigated to that watershed and it will be highlighted in opaque yellow. Selecting a watershed using WRIA on the Text Search Page will allow you to both select well reports based on their WRIA and to further narrow your search by adding other criteria.

Sort By

Use this dropdown box to specify how you want the Text Search Results sorted. The Search Results will still identify the well report by owner name, but the order will reflect your selection. For instance, if you selected Well Depth, the well reports would be listed starting with the shallowest well first. The listing would not be in alphabetical order by owner name, but in well depth in ascending order. Any records with missing information on the field you are sorting by will be listed first.

Results per Page

Searches may return hundreds of records and can quickly overwhelm a browser trying to display all those records. You can change how many records are displayed at a time on the Results List Page by clicking on the drop down box and making another "pages at a time" selection. If the number of records resulting from your search exceeds the number displayed on the Text Search Results Page, then you can click "Next" or select a page number listed at the bottom of the Results List Page.