I used to assume that if a property had a working well, that was enough. Pump turns on, water comes out — what else matters? That thinking cost me dearly.
When we expanded our operation and bought a neighboring parcel, the well tested fine during due diligence. What we didn't pull was the Texas Water Development Board well log history. Turns out the well had been drilled twice — the first casing had failed years earlier and was never disclosed. Worse, documented yields from neighboring wells in that same township had dropped 40% over 15 years as the aquifer declined.
That trend data was publicly available the whole time. I just didn't know to look.
Now I treat well logs, aquifer level trend reports, and groundwater conservation district records as non-negotiable pre-offer research — more important than the soil survey. A parcel with marginal soil and a reliable aquifer can work. A parcel with great soil and a failing water supply will break you.
Is anyone else finding that local GCDs are actually more useful than state databases for predicting long-term yield, or is that just a Texas thing?