3 History of Well Record Databases

The practice of recording well construction information for water wells was likely originally adopted from practices related to petroleum or geotechnical drilling, in response to the need to find and consistently reproduce viable well water supplies. Historically, well contractors recorded well construction information in logbooks, which were later replaced by handwritten forms that were archived in a central location. Some jurisdictions now allow electronic submission of well records (e.g., Province of Alberta) while others continue to manually enter well log information from hard copy forms into a digital database (e.g., the Province of Nova Scotia).

The earliest well logs were voluntarily recorded by well contractors, likely as a useful record of well construction details and geological and groundwater conditions encountered during well installation that could be later referenced by the well contractor. During the 1960s and 1970s there was an increased awareness of the vulnerability of domestic water wells to contamination, and legislation ensuring best practices for well construction was commonly adopted. Perrone and Jasechko (2017) reported that in the United States, most states were collecting well record information by the mid-1970s.

Initially, well logs, or a summary of the logs, may have been published annually in a hard copy format, which has evolved over the years to digital databases that can be searched online (Ganley, 1989). The conversion of hard copy databases to a digital format is a significant undertaking, and for those well record database managers that have completed the work, it represents an important milestone whereby the usefulness of the dataset was greatly enhanced. Another important relevant technological advancement was the availability of inexpensive handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) devices, including smartphones, that allowed well construction contractors to record the location of a water well more accurately (Figure 3).

Figure 3 – Well location coordinates being recorded in the field.

The evolution of Nova Scotia’s well record database over the past 55 years is presented in Box 1. Many other jurisdictions have followed a similar evolution in terms of the development of their well record databases, moving from a hard copy format to internet distribution of well record information.