7  Best Practices for Water Well Record Management

Gavin Kennedy

7 Best Practices for Water Well Record Management

Following best management practices for managing well records directly contributes to the advancement of safe drinking water and the protection of groundwater resources. The collection of good quality well record data can also have ancillary benefits, such as the use of this data as a research tool for understanding opportunities, hazards and threats to aquifers. While there is no universally accepted standard, the previous section on the shortcomings of well record databases is useful in formulating an idealized scenario for well record data management. Four overarching objectives, and associated recommended system components for achieving these objectives, are outlined in Table 3.

Table 3 – Key objectives for well record management to support drinking water and groundwater management program goals and recommended system components to achieve the objectives.

Objective	Recommended System Component
Water well record data is effectively captured	• Mandatory submission of well record data to a centralized authority by water well contractors as a legislated requirement • Well records are required for all types of water wells (e.g., public, domestic, agricultural, industrial) • Regulatory tools and resources are used to ensure compliance with mandatory well record submission requirements, including outreach, training, inspection and enforcement activities
High quality, useful, accurate information is captured in water well record forms and databases	• Well record forms are designed to achieve compromise between the amount of data collected by well contractors and the utility/importance of these data (e.g., emphasis should be on critical well construction information and especially useful data such as accurate water level measurements and yield estimates) • Submitted well record data is complete (i.e., all fields have been filled out) • Well locations are recorded in the field using GPS or equivalent • Unique well identifier label is physically affixed to each water well and is referenced to the well record • Minimum standards are established for geological training for water well contractors so that they are collecting reasonably good quality water level and yield information and so that lithological descriptions are useful for geological interpretation • Where applicable, well screen details (e.g., screen depth) are adequately captured on the well record so that the aquifer(s) supplying the water well can be identified and related to the well information • Field measurement of simple water quality parameters are recorded, such as electrical conductivity • Pump installation details are recorded (could be separate form) and related to the well record • Consistent standards are established for geological nomenclature for use by water well contractors at regional scales, and preferably a unified nomenclature adopted at national and even international scales • Rigorous quality-assurance/quality-control review of submitted well records is conducted to ensure high quality data is captured in well record databases • Following a change in status of a water well (e.g., decommissioning, modification), the updated status is related to the original record so that current well status information can be accessed
Water well record publication is timely	• The data management system allows for online submission of well record forms, including user-friendly phone applications, to reduce labor intensive manual well record data entry and to improve timeliness of well record submission by contractors • The system allows for the timely review and publication of a well record following water well construction and the submission of the associated record (e.g., days to months)
Water well record data is findable and accessible in various formats	• Well record data is easily found on the internet and is publicly available • Well record data is distributed in various open file formats, including printable reports for well owner’s records • Various options are available for searching of well records, including a map interface • Graphical viewers or widgets are available to enhance the communication of well record information

A regulatory framework for the mandatory submission of well records is the most critical component of a successful well record management system. Where the regulatory framework is absent or inadequate, it can require a significant level of effort to create new legislation. For any jurisdiction looking to strengthen the regulatory framework, or make other improvements to well record management systems, it is important to provide evidence-based linkages between well record best management practices and the goals of drinking water and groundwater management programs, such as drinking water safety and groundwater protection.

Barriers to achieving the four key objectives presented in Table 3 are often related to resource constraints. For example, auditing and enforcement of well construction activities in relation to the completion of good quality well records may consume significant resources, especially if compliance mechanisms are not easy to implement. Data entry and review processes can also be extremely resource intensive, depending on the design of the data collection system. The design and implementation of an efficient system for the collection, review, and publication of well record data, however, usually requires the adoption of an advanced data management solution, with suitable information technology infrastructure. These types of solutions can be expensive to acquire, implement and maintain, although over the long-term they offer cost efficiencies and improved data quality. They also offer significant opportunities for automated data validation, standardization (e.g., online drop-down lists to constrain geological descriptions to standard nomenclature), and analytics. An idealized information flow of well record data is presented in Figure 8.

Figure showing ideal information flow for well records from data collection in the field to publication over the internet

Figure 8 – Ideal information flow for well records from data collection in the field to publication over the internet.

Another barrier to achieving some of the objectives outlined in Table 3 includes the requirement for the development of standards and training for well contractors and data managers. Training programs can help achieve minimum standards for identifying lithological types and improve the quality of the data contained in well record databases. Recognizing that water well contractors are not geoscientists, a compromise is required to ensure that well record data is high quality and supports drinking water and groundwater management program goals without causing undue burden on water well contractors. There is no international standard available, and in most cases standards and training programs related to well record management must be developed by local governments administering the program, where resources can be limited. Groundwater associations (e.g., the National Groundwater Association in the United States) can have an important role in working with governments to develop and deliver consistent training standards.

A productive working relationship between government/regulatory bodies and water well contractors (often represented by an industry association) is an important aspect of the success of any well record management system, as it requires cooperation and investment from both parties. Where the quality of well record data is limited by the capacity of well contractors to purchase critical equipment, such as water level, flow or specific conductance meters, government support (e.g., subsidies) can be impactful. For example, the Province of Nova Scotia provided GPS units to all well drillers in 2004 to improve the spatial referencing of well record data. The Nova Scotia Well Logs Database now contains GPS locations for about 20 percent of all well records in the database.

Although the recommended best management practices are difficult for most jurisdictions to implement, they may be useful in providing a road map for incremental improvement. For jurisdictions that would like to start collecting well records but have limited capacity, the most important elements of a well record management program is the collection and digitization of a well record form (ideally under a mandatory regulatory framework), completed in the field by a well construction contractor, recording basic information about the water well, including a unique well identifier, the location, the driller, the owner, the depth and the static water level. To build long-term support for the collection of this data, it is critical that the database is made publicly available in a searchable digital format (e.g., simple database or spreadsheet and ideally on maps) so that it may be used by a diverse range of clients.

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