Water wells in the Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District

Q: What does a groundwater conservation district do?

In Texas, districts are the local authority over groundwater: they can require registration or permits for new wells, set spacing from other wells and property lines, and limit pumping. Each district writes its own rules, so ask the Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District before drilling inside it.

Home water wells inside the Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District (Bell County, Texas) vary a lot in depth: the middle half are 199 to 840 feet deep (median 560 ft, 518 wells drilled in the last 10 years), so look at the wells closest to the tract. No single layer dominates: 50% draw from the lower Trinity (Twin Mountains and Travis Peak), 27% from the Washita and Fredericksburg groups and 16% from the upper Trinity (Paluxy and Glen Rose), according to the state's Northern Trinity and Woodbine model (TWDB). Over the last three full years drillers reported about 52 new home wells a year; the peak was 86 in 2005. Estimated cost of a complete well at the median depth: $16,500 to $40,000.

Updated every day from Texas Water Development Board driller reports. Last update: November 11, 2026, using the state file of November 10, 2026.

See the wells and layers at an exact point

Under the center of the Clearwater UWCD

District boundary from TWDB's file current as of November 2019. Later changes are not shown.

Home wells in and around the Clearwater UWCD

Each dot is a home well from a state driller report, colored by depth. Tap one for its details and official report. Tap an empty spot to see what is under that point.

See underground

Well depth (ft)

<100
100
200
300
400
600
800+

Dark line: the district boundary (TWDB, 2019)

Key figures

Typical depth (middle half): 199 to 840 feet
Median depth: 560 feet
Deepest 10% are past: 890 feet
Water level (median): 228 feet; 296 wells
Yield (median): 30 gpm; 475 wells, gallons per minute
Wells used: 518; In the last 10 years
Counties: 1
All years on file: 1,234; median 540 ft, since 2003
Confidence: Standard (30 or more wells)

When the wells were finished, the water stood a median 228 feet below the surface (296 wells), well above the bottom: the typical well holds about 332 feet of water.

District boundary from TWDB's file current as of November 2019. Later changes are not shown.

New home wells per year

Over the last three full years drillers reported about 52 new home wells a year; the peak was 86 in 2005.

Domestic wells with a depth, by the year they were finished. 2026 is still in progress.

Show the data table

Year	Wells
2003	55
2004	64
2005	86
2006	69
2007	55
2008	40
2009	34
2010	46
2011	57
2012	43
2013	42
2014	46
2015	46
2016	39
2017	43
2018	50
2019	51
2020	42
2021	77
2022	72
2023	53
2024	57
2025	46
2026	21

Which formation the wells draw from

No single layer dominates: 50% draw from the lower Trinity (Twin Mountains and Travis Peak), 27% from the Washita and Fredericksburg groups and 16% from the upper Trinity (Paluxy and Glen Rose), according to the state's Northern Trinity and Woodbine model (TWDB).

Layer (state's model)	Share	Wells	Typical depth (ft)
Lower TrinityTwin Mountains and Travis Peak	50%	259	555–860
Washita and Fredericksburg	27%	138	106–211
Upper TrinityPaluxy and Glen Rose	16%	84	519–892
Above the Woodbine	7%	35	40–56
Near or below the base of the Trinity	<1%	2	—

For 99% of these wells the report says where the water enters (the screen or the open hole), and we use the middle of that interval.

Places with the most wells in the district

Place	Median depth (ft)	Middle half (ft)	Wells	Main layer
Killeen	600	510–794	98	Lower Trinity (Twin Mountains and Travis Peak)
Temple	420	160–900	81	Washita and Fredericksburg
Belton	190	140–215	78	Washita and Fredericksburg
Salado	197	155–220	61	Washita and Fredericksburg
Harker Heights	730	650–801	43	Lower Trinity (Twin Mountains and Travis Peak)
Nolanville	770	705–861	36	Lower Trinity (Twin Mountains and Travis Peak)
Morgan's Point Resort	900	870–905	33	Lower Trinity (Twin Mountains and Travis Peak)
Holland	57	40–60	12	Above the Woodbine
Little River-Academy	60	56–61	11	Above the Woodbine

Counties

Bell County

Depth over time

Home well depth in the district has not changed meaningfully in 20 years: the median was 672 feet in 2003 to 2007 and 610 feet in 2021 to 2025 (a difference under 10% or within the margin of error).

Period	Median depth (ft)	Wells
2001–2005	620	205
2006–2010	582	244
2011–2015	480	234
2016–2020	460	225
2021–2025	610	305
2026	510	21

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Common questions

How deep are wells in the Clearwater UWCD?

Which formation do wells in the district draw from?

What does a groundwater conservation district do?

In Texas, districts are the local authority over groundwater: they can require registration or permits for new wells, set spacing from other wells and property lines, and limit pumping. Each district writes its own rules, so ask the Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District before drilling inside it.

What a well costs here

At the median depth for the district (560 feet), a complete home well would cost roughly $16,500 to $40,000: $25 to $60 per foot for drilling, casing and seal, plus $2,500 to $6,500 for the pump, pressure tank, controls and hookup at the well. Across the whole middle half of depths (199 to 840 feet) the range runs from $7,500 to $57,000. This is TerraFunded's estimate from published Texas prices, not a quote, and it leaves out trenching and the line to the house. Get prices from at least two licensed drillers.

How these numbers are made

We count new and replacement domestic (home) wells whose coordinates fall inside the district boundary. We use the last 10 years when there are at least 30 wells; otherwise all since 2001. The median is the middle well and the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

To tell which layer a well draws from, we take the ground elevation at its location, subtract the depth of the interval where water enters (or the bottom of the hole when the report does not give one) and see which layer of the state's model that point falls in.

For 99% of these wells the report says where the water enters (the screen or the open hole), and we use the middle of that interval.

How well it works: In 7,977 wells in the area of the state's Northern Trinity and Woodbine model (North and Central Texas) where the State of Texas recorded the aquifer, our estimate of the formation the well draws from names the same layer of the state's model in about 74% of them, and that layer or the one next to it in at least 95%; among the 3,130 of those wells that the state places in a Trinity layer (Paluxy to Hosston) it is about 56%.

The layers come from the Texas Water Development Board's Northern Trinity and Woodbine model, with quarter mile cells, summarized here to about 1.3 miles. It is a regional model, not a survey of any lot: between one model point and the next, the real depth of each layer can differ.
In this model every layer is at least 30 feet thick, even where the real rock is thinner or missing. Thin layers and the edges of the model are approximate.
Inside the Trinity this atlas does not name single model layers: it groups the Paluxy and Glen Rose (upper Trinity) and groups the Hensell, Pearsall and Hosston (lower Trinity, Twin Mountains and Travis Peak), because the check against the state's codes shows the method cannot separate them reliably.
"Near or below the base of the Trinity" means the well reaches the bottom of the model or passes it, often by tens of feet. Older rock that the model does not include may lie there.
We never use the model's water levels. The water level on this page is the one each driller measured when the well was finished.

These are depths of real wells drilled nearby, not a promise about any property. Groundwater can change over short distances and with drought. A licensed water well driller can tell you what to expect on a specific tract.

Read the full methodology · Download the data (CSV, CC BY 4.0)

How to cite

TerraFunded (2026). Texas Well Atlas: Underground. From Texas Water Development Board driller reports and groundwater availability models (data as of November 10, 2026). https://terrafunded.com/wells/districts/clearwater-underground-water-conservation-district. License CC BY 4.0. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24126380.

Sources

Submitted Driller's Reports database, Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) (file of November 10, 2026)
Hydrogeology and Documentation of the Northern Trinity and Woodbine Aquifer System Groundwater Availability Model (NTGAM). Ellis, J., Prieto-Estrada, A., Osborne, A., Deeds, N., White, J., and Keester, M. (INTERA Incorporated), for the North Texas Groundwater Conservation District and Groundwater Management Area 8, 2025, GAM v3.01. TWDB groundwater availability model.
Groundwater conservation district boundaries, TWDB (current as of November 2019)
Ground elevation: Terrain Tiles (Mapzen), Registry of Open Data on AWS
TWDB well report viewer (each well's official report)