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Montana water data · County

Missoula County: well depth, groundwater and water rights

What the public record says about water in Missoula County: 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 34,108 public records from MBMG GWIC, Montana DNRC, Montana DEQ, EPA SEMS, EPA UST Finder

Wells on record

15,860

15,131 with recorded depth

Median well depth

100 ft

half of wells 63–170 ft

Median static water level

33 ft

13,557 measurements

Median tested yield

30 gpm

13,843 pump tests

Well depth

How deep are wells in Missoula County?

Of 15,131 wells with a recorded total depth, the median is 100 feet. Half were drilled between 63 and 170 feet; one in ten went deeper than 280 feet and one in ten found water shallower than 45 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
11%
50–100 ft
36%
100–200 ft
34%
200–300 ft
9%
300–500 ft
7%
500 ft and deeper
2%

Static water level

33 ft

median depth to water at rest · half between 18 and 68 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

30 gpm

median tested yield · half between 12 and 50 gpm

7% of tested wells produced under 5 gallons per minute and 65% 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 Missoula County

1,717 wells have been completed here since 2016, 116 of them in the last twelve months. The newest log on file was completed September 21, 2026. Records run back to 1855.

What the wells are for

  • Domestic12,775
  • Irrigation776
  • Monitoring617
  • Public Water Supply608
  • Stockwater501

How they were drilled

  • Rotary9,084
  • Cable1,423
  • Forward Rotary1,029
  • Churn650

Drillers filing well logs in Missoula County

  • Jeromes Drilling Co524 since 2016 · 2025
  • Western Montana Drilling Co.369 since 2016 · 2026
  • Camp Well Drilling And Pump Service211 since 2016 · 2026
  • Camp Well Drilling & Pump Supply128 since 2016 · 2026
  • Okeefe Drilling Co119 since 2016 · 2026
  • Western Montana Drilling Company87 since 2016 · 2024
  • Coldwater Drilling And Pumps38 since 2016 · 2026
  • Eslinger Drilling & Pump Service33 since 2016 · 2026

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 Missoula County

Montana DNRC lists 17,546 water rights in the county: 13,284 groundwater and 4,262 surface water, 15,972 of them active. The median priority date is 1982, and the oldest claim dates to 1855.

Types of right

  • Ground Water Certificate10,502
  • Statement Of Claim5,285
  • Provisional Permit696
  • Exempt Notice515
  • Converted Terminates280

Purposes

  • Domestic5,851
  • Domestic; Lawn And Garden2,769
  • Irrigation2,205
  • Stock1,752
  • Domestic; Stock460

DNRC basins

  • 76M8,032
  • 76H3,923
  • 76F3,181
  • 76G1,185
  • 76K815

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 Missoula County 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.

  • Alluvium (pleistocene)4,493 wells · 39% · median 100 ft
  • Alluvium (holocene)2,773 wells · 24% · median 51 ft
  • Belt Supergroup1,696 wells · 15% · median 200 ft
  • Sediments (tertiary)1,445 wells · 12% · median 170 ft
  • Glacial Outwash (pleistocene)363 wells · 3% · median 60 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 Missoula County

Petroleum releases

291

17 open · 274 resolved

Superfund program sites

8

3 on or proposed for the NPL

Registered tank facilities

403

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 2023. A property report screens the sites within a quarter, half and one mile of a specific parcel and links the agency records.