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Montana water data · City in Cascade County

Great Falls: well depth, groundwater and water rights

What the public record says about water in Great Falls: how deep wells go, where the water table sits, what wells produce, which water rights are on file, and which documented environmental sites are nearby. Area statistics orient you; a property report analyzes the records around one specific parcel.

Updated September 2026 · Based on 1,396 public records from MBMG GWIC, Montana DNRC, Montana DEQ, EPA SEMS, EPA UST Finder, US Census (place boundary)

Wells on record

717

31 per sq mi

Median well depth

27 ft

half of wells 18–86 ft

Median static water level

20 ft

371 measurements

Median tested yield

24 gpm

209 pump tests

Well depth

How deep are wells in Great Falls?

Of 576 wells with a recorded total depth, the median is 27 feet. Half were drilled between 18 and 86 feet; one in ten went deeper than 208 feet and one in ten found water shallower than 15 feet. Depth is set by local geology and position on the landscape, both of which change over short distances, so the spread matters as much as the median.

under 50 ft
57%
50–100 ft
19%
100–200 ft
12%
200–300 ft
5%
300–500 ft
4%
500 ft and deeper
2%

Static water level

20 ft

median depth to water at rest · half between 10 and 46 ft

The static level is how far below ground the water stands before pumping, measured by the driller at completion. It affects pump setting and operating cost, and it moves with season and with neighbouring use.

Well yield

24 gpm

median tested yield · half between 10 and 40 gpm

11% of tested wells produced under 5 gallons per minute and 62% produced 20 or more. These are short completion tests, not sustained-capacity tests; a household typically needs 3 to 5 gpm with storage.

Drilling activity

Recent well drilling in Great Falls

65 wells have been completed here since 2016, 2 of them in the last twelve months. The newest log on file was completed April 30, 2026. Records run back to 1900.

What the wells are for

  • Monitoring451
  • Domestic169
  • Irrigation36
  • Public Water Supply19
  • Injection15

How they were drilled

  • Rotary122
  • Hollowstem Auger95
  • Cable47
  • Auger40

Drillers filing well logs in Great Falls

  • Boland Drilling33 since 2016 · 2023
  • Cascade Drilling Lp22 since 2016 · 2025
  • Montana Salinity Control Association9 since 2016 · 2020
  • West Central Environmental Consultants5 since 2016 · 2025
  • Okeefe Drilling Co4 since 2016 · 2025
  • Aaaa Water Well Drilling Inc3 since 2016 · 2021
  • Olympus Technical Services3 since 2016 · 2025
  • Thomas, Dean, And Hoskins, Inc.2 since 2016 · 2025

Ranked by well logs filed with GWIC, public record only. Not an endorsement, a referral or a paid listing; we have no business relationship with these companies. Verify licensing with the Montana Board of Water Well Contractors before hiring.

Water rights

Water rights on file in Great Falls

Montana DNRC lists 246 water rights with a point of diversion inside this area: 184 groundwater and 62 surface water, 223 of them active. The median priority date is 1976, and the oldest claim dates to 1887.

Types of right

  • Ground Water Certificate111
  • Statement Of Claim97
  • Provisional Permit20
  • Exempt Notice15
  • Water Reservation3

Purposes

  • Domestic103
  • Domestic; Lawn And Garden27
  • Lawn And Garden26
  • Irrigation25
  • Commercial14

DNRC basins

  • 41QJ159
  • 41Q45
  • 41K42

Area totals describe the neighbourhood, not any one parcel. Montana publishes no authoritative link between a parcel and a water right; whether a right attaches to a specific property is a property-level question that our reports answer with the DNRC abstract linked.

Aquifers and geology

What wells in Great Falls draw from

Drillers record the aquifer a well is completed in. The units below account for the wells here that carry an aquifer assignment; the median depth beside each is for wells completed in that unit.

  • Kootenai Formation118 wells · 46% · median 109 ft
  • Glacial Great Falls Lake Sediments36 wells · 14% · median 55 ft
  • Sand And Gravel (pleistocene)31 wells · 12% · median 192 ft
  • Madison Group Or Limestone24 wells · 9% · median 445 ft
  • Alluvium (quaternary)23 wells · 9% · median 20 ft

Aquifer assignments are the driller's, recorded at completion, and many older logs carry none. Absence of an assignment is not evidence about the geology.

Environmental groundwater screening

Documented environmental sites in Great Falls

Petroleum releases

205

50 open · 155 resolved

Superfund program sites

2

none on the National Priorities List

Registered tank facilities

226

underground storage tanks, current and historical

A documented release or site in the area is not evidence that any particular well is affected. Whether a release reaches a well depends on groundwater flow direction, geology, well depth and construction, the extent of the plume and the cleanup performed. The most recent release reported here dates to 2022. A property report screens the sites within a quarter, half and one mile of a specific parcel and links the agency records.