Montana water data · Community in Flathead County
Little Bitterroot Lake: well depth, groundwater and water rights
What the public record says about water in Little Bitterroot Lake: 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 450 public records from MBMG GWIC, Montana DNRC, US Census (place boundary)
Wells on record
193
22.9 per sq mi
Median well depth
283 ft
half of wells 200–400 ft
Median static water level
34 ft
183 measurements
Median tested yield
20 gpm
185 pump tests
Well depth
How deep are wells in Little Bitterroot Lake?
Of 193 wells with a recorded total depth, the median is 283 feet. Half were drilled between 200 and 400 feet; one in ten went deeper than 576 feet and one in ten found water shallower than 64 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.
Static water level
34 ft
median depth to water at rest · half between 21 and 50 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
20 gpm
median tested yield · half between 12 and 33 gpm
3% of tested wells produced under 5 gallons per minute and 60% 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 Little Bitterroot Lake
48 wells have been completed here since 2016, 3 of them in the last twelve months. The newest log on file was completed July 24, 2026. Records run back to 1958.
What the wells are for
- Domestic182
- Stockwater10
- Irrigation7
- Fire Protection7
- Public Water Supply3
How they were drilled
- Rotary159
- Cable8
- Forward Rotary6
- Dual Rotarty2
Drillers filing well logs in Little Bitterroot Lake
- Billmayer Drilling11 since 2016 · 2025
- Glazier Drilling7 since 2016 · 2024
- Rm Drilling And Well Services7 since 2016 · 2025
- Oh Well Drilling And Pump6 since 2016 · 2023
- Chambers Drilling Company5 since 2016 · 2025
- Coldwater Drilling And Pumps4 since 2016 · 2026
- Oh Well Drilling & Pump3 since 2016 · 2018
- Allwest Drilling Inc1 since 2016 · 2024
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 Little Bitterroot Lake
Montana DNRC lists 257 water rights with a point of diversion inside this area: 143 groundwater and 114 surface water, 242 of them active. The median priority date is 1992, and the oldest claim dates to 1855.
Types of right
- Ground Water Certificate141
- Statement Of Claim84
- Provisional Permit31
- Compact1
Purposes
- Domestic159
- Domestic; Lawn And Garden40
- Multiple Domestic23
- Irrigation5
- Domestic; Stock5
DNRC basins
- 76L256
- 76N1
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 Little Bitterroot Lake 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.
- Belt Supergroup17 wells · 33% · median 303 ft
- Ravalli Group16 wells · 31% · median 212 ft
- Alluvium (holocene)14 wells · 27% · median 37 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.