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Disclaimer Data Completeness History of the Well Log (Well Report) Well Log Definition Duplicate Well Tag IDs Well Locations on the Map Well Locations in Water Bodies on the Map Well Locations Adjusting your Monitor Optimal Browsing Requirements Use of Back Button Viewing Well Log Images Contributors Your Comments Links to Well Drilling, USGS and Related Web Sites The Department of Ecology's Water Resources Program maintains Well Log records for the State of Washington. A Well Log means a Well Report and describes the location, ownership, construction details and lithology of a completed well. Public access to these records is provided free of charge. Please read the following section describing the legalities concerning the use of this information. Well Log Data and Images released from the Department of Ecology are provided on an “AS IS” basis, without warranty of any kind. The data and/or image(s) may not be accurate, complete, legible, or otherwise reliable Ecology disclaims any and all warranties, whether express or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will Ecology be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or loss resulting from any use or misuse of these data and/or images. The user of this well log assumes the entire risk that the data and/or image may be inaccurate, incomplete, illegible, or otherwise reliable. The accuracy of the well log information you see is dependent upon the knowledge, skill and care taken by each well driller completing the well report. The information provided on the "Text Search Results" and "Map Search Results" page(s) are captured from the original well log submitted by the well driller. Although the Water Resources Program takes great pains to ensure that the data entered is correct, there may be data entry errors. The reproduction of the submitted well log in image format is available and that information takes precedence over the tabular data found on the "Text Search Results" or "Map Search Results" page(s). Keying the information into the search engine's database also impacts its accuracy. We have tried to maintain a high level of accuracy when keying in the data. A random sample check suggests the keying accuracy to be 97.4%. Our target without paying for validation was 99%. We have also put much effort into cleaning the data before making it available. Cleaning projects began in August of 1999 and continue today. They have involved the review of ten's of thousands of records and their well log images. Some loss of information can occur from scanning a document. Small dots that end abbreviated words or decimals that separate whole numbers from fractions can be lost as a result of scanning. If a number has a gap between its digits or if the line that boxes it has white space where a continuous line should be, then any associated numeric value should be scrutinized. Poorly scanned documents can be rescanned from the original paper if reported. Use the Contact Us page. Well Log locations are only accurate to the nearest Township, Section and Range (TRS) using Public Land Survey (PLS) Maps. About 80% of the time the PLS location is specific to the nearest quarter section or quarter of a quarter section. Each approximate location is assigned a center point that is drawn in the section or quarter or quarter-quarter section where the well is reported to be located. These center points are called centroids. Each is represented by a small colored square on the map. Therefore, the well location data point represented on the Map Search Page does not necessarily represent the exact location of a well in Washington State. Also, because of the limited accuracy of the data, some well points on the map appear to be in water bodies when they are not. The vast majority of the well logs are historical documents. This Well Log Search and Retrieval System presents the information as it is found on the well log form. The information (data) for the fields (i.e., attributes or data elements) on the well log is often over 99 percent complete. Approximately 99.7% of the time well logs contain Township/Section/Range (TRS) location information. However, a little less than 1% of the time well logs have TRS locations that are invalid. The Well Log Map Search Page will not show or report these logs. They may be found, however, by using the Text Search Page. Fields with significantly less than 99% complete data include the 1/4 and 1/4x1/4 Section Data, Notice of Intent Numbers, Well Log Received Date Stamps, Driller's License Number and Well Tag IDs. Please see the section which follows labeled "Data Completeness" for specific percentages. Reasons for incomplete data on the well log vary widely. For example, Well Tag IDs are present less than 25 percent of the time. 20% of the well logs have duplicate Well Tag IDs. 70% of the time these duplicates are legitimate. The remaining 30% are being reviewed. Tax parcel numbers are rarely present before June of 1999. Another example is the Notice of Intent (NOI) Numbers that begin with a letter (e.g. W123456). These numbers have only been in existence since June of 1993. Those NOI numbers not beginning with a letter were assigned prior to June of 1993. A third example, Well Address, is often absent or the address can be very imprecise. Sometimes the well was near a specific street address. Others were near an intersection or a landmark with no other address identifier. Out of consideration for the well owner and for reasons relating to security, the Well Address is omitted from the MS Excel or ASCII export files. Please take notice that state law states that all private citizen names and addresses may not be used for any solicitation/commercial purpose. If at first you do not find the well log you are looking for, try another way to search for it. The system is designed to let you do many kinds of searches if you know some of the information. You can also search using only partial owner name or address information. Please see the Help for examples of how to construct successful searches. The well logs in this well log imaging system represent all paper well logs in the Department of Ecology's Water Resources Program minus any backlog or misplaced or lost documents. Each regional office typically is within two to three weeks of being current in its data entry. The percentage to which the data is complete for each attribute is identified in the table below. Location and ownership data are very complete. Quarter section and quarter-quarter section data is good but less complete. Searches to the nearest quarter or quarter-quarter section consequently may exclude relevant results. Well depth and diameter are less complete. When the data is less complete it is because it was less frequently reported for some types of wells or may not have been reported earlier in the history of the well construction program. Well Tag IDs are present approximately 24 percent of the time. 20% of these well logs have duplicate Well Tag IDs. This reflects the well drilling practices and historical requirements for wells when they were drilled. The Notice of Intent to Drill database was not started until July of 1993, hence, the low percentage of wells with Notice of Intent Numbers. Tax Parcel Numbers have only been possible to report since mid 1999. Search for your information several different ways.
History of the Well Log (Well Report) The State of Washington has been receiving well logs since the 1930s. Over the years the well report form has changed several times and well logs have been under the management of the Department of Ecology since 1971. Each change or revision resulted in more data being collected about the well, its location, the persons associated with the well, and the actions taken on the well. Hundreds of well drillers throughout the state fill out the well report. When the well report form is filled out, it is sometimes handwritten and sometimes typed. Requirements for what fields had to be completed for the well log to be accepted have changed over time. Water Resources has four regional offices that are responsible for the collection, acceptance, and filing of well logs. A Well Log means a Well Report and is used to describe the location, ownership, construction details and lithology for either a completed resource protection or water supply well. The report is completed and signed by the individual who constructs the well. All reports must be submitted to Ecology within thirty days following the completion of the well. Some well logs share the same well tag ID (example of a well tag ID: ABC123). A well tag ID was created to uniquely identify a well. A well can have more than one well report. The well, for example, may have one well report created when it was originally drilled, another when it was deepened and another when it was decommissioned. All three of these well reports would (correctly) share the same well tag ID. Unfortunately some well reports have been submitted that contain the same well tag ID for different wells in different locations. This is a driller's recording error that can only be corrected by the well driller. A few duplicate well tag IDs are the result of data entry error. These are being reviewed and corrected. Only three percent of the well logs have duplicate well tag IDs. Seventy percent of this three percent are legitimate duplicate well tag IDs. Thirty percent of this three percent are in error. The numbers are small, but disconcerting. Approximately 24% of all the well logs have their well tag IDs reported. Each well location on the map (the small blue, red, purple and/or black squares on the map) can have one or more well reports associated with it. Well Locations in Water Bodies on the Map Some wells appear in water bodies on the GIS map search page. This is primarily because the township, section, range location information is not exact by its nature or because the information was reported in error. In a few cases it is due to data entry errors. These data entry errors are corrected as they are discovered by Ecology well log trackers. To get well location information out of the water, the driller needs to submit a correction to the Water Resources Program Well Log Tracker for their region. Well logs (reports) contain well location information. This information is reported to the nearest 1/4, 1/4 of a section within a township and range. Sometimes it is reported only to the nearest 1/4 section or just to the nearest section within a township and range. Public Land Survey maps are used to describe well locations. When Metzger maps were used by drillers to determine well locations and when those location descriptions differed from the Public Land Survey location descriptions, the location information was electronically converted to its Public Land Survey equivalent. This was done so that all well locations would be represented using a consistent methodology on the map search page. It is possible to search for well logs by navigating a Washington State map or by keying in township, range, and section information. Either result will locate any well log containing location information. This site is designed for a monitor display resolution of 800 x 600 or higher. To view most pages including well log images at full size, you may have to scroll right and left, top and bottom unless your monitor display is set at 800 x 600 or higher. If Internet Explorer is your browser, you can adjust the amount of text that is on your screen by selecting "View" and then "Text Size" from your browser's toolbar. Selecting a larger text size reduces the amount of text that will fit on your screen and selecting a smaller text size will fit more text on your screen at your current display resolution. For those of you who find doing map searches particularly useful, you will find that the entire Map Search Page will be viewable with no need to be scrolled if you use the higher display resolution of 1024 x 768. For optimal viewing, use Internet Explorer version 5 (or higher), Netscape version 6 (or higher), or any other new browser supporting at least HTML 4.01 and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Any other browsing agents or versions are not recommended and are known not to support all features in this application. Optimal display resolution is 800 x 600 or higher. Optimal browser text size for viewing the navigation bar and the tabs for Internet Explorer is medium or smaller. The Map Search Page displays best using a resolution of 1024 x 768. Other display settings may depreciate your viewing experience. To obtain the correct browser version or to change your display settings refer to your desktop support center. Free browser upgrades are available for the Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers. Every browser comes with a back button (left most button on your browser toolbar). You will use it, for instance, to return to the help index from this page. It displays the last most current information, typically thought of as the previous page viewed. At times the IE Back Button had been disabled. This is done to prevent the application from locking up. Whenever this application supplies its own back button, use it instead. Failure to do so may result in unpredictable and undesirable results. This application's own back button makes sure that you get back to where you were with all the right stuff in place. It will get you back to the map you were on at the same point and with your choices still in force. It will get you back to the last text search exactly as you entered it or to the same search results list you were using. It is recommended that you use the application's back button whenever it is present. It is located on the left side of the navigation or viewing tools supplied for the Map and Text Search Results pages and for the Image Viewer pages. Well Log Images are viewable on this site in either Adobe PDF or TIFF 4 formats. To view PDF files, you must install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 7 or higher). If you are not sure whether you have this software installed on your computer or not, you can do one of two things. Check your computer program installation log to see if it is installed (windows users 'Add/Remove Programs') or search for a well log and try to open one from the resulting list. If you are prompted to select a tool to open the file, you probably do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. To view well logs in TIFF format, you must either have a browser plug-in or any desktop software that can read this format. A browser plug-in will open the tiff image directly within your browser window. Otherwise, when you click to open a tiff file, it will either open your desktop imaging program or prompt you to select how to open it. There are a number of plug-ins and software available on the Internet. Some are free such as Alternatiff and InterneTiff for Windows. Prizm is a good plug-in for all platforms available as a demo. This site was conceived by Chris Anderson and Ed Young from the Washington State Department of Ecology Water Resources Program. Chris Anderson secured dedicated funding for this project. John Tooley and Dan Saul of Ecology's Geographic Information Systems Unit were the principle designers behind the maps and map search systems. Ed Young was project lead and principle coordinator. Michael Heiser was the lead technical programmer and original web developer. Jim Holmquist, Tommy Eden and Darby Veeck were contributing web programmers and members of the project's technical team. Other contributors include Joe Stohr (Water Resources - Program Management), Stella Satter (Water Resources - Operations), Debbie Stewart (IS Applications & Data Services), Joy Denkers (IS GIS), and Lynn Singleton (IIP Project). Your comments are highly valuable and in part contribute to the success of this system. To leave us your comments, use the Contact Us comment form. 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