You do not need a permit to drill a water well in El Paso County, because there is no groundwater conservation district here to issue one. The Texas Water Development Board is explicit that there are no groundwater conservation districts within Groundwater Management Area 5, the area covering El Paso and Hudspeth counties, and its summary sheet for the Hueco-Mesilla Bolsons aquifer puts the proportion of the aquifer under district coverage at zero percent.
That is the genuinely unusual part of drilling here, and it is often reported wrongly. National cost pages list an El Paso permit fee of $150 to $300 attributed to the water utility, which does not apply to a private domestic well on private land in this county. What replaces the district rulebook is state law, and there is less of it than most people expect.
The four rules that actually bind
1. A licensed driller and pump installer
Water well drillers are licensed under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1901 and pump installers under Chapter 1902, administered by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, with the technical rules in Title 16 of the Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 76. Ask for the license number and check it. TDLR water well driller and pump installer laws and rules →
2. The State of Texas Well Report, within 60 days
Section 76.70 requires that not later than the 60th day after completion or cessation of drilling, deepening or otherwise altering a well, the driller delivers a copy of the well log to the department through the Texas Well Report Submission and Retrieval System, to the well owner, and to the groundwater conservation district if there is one. Here there is not, so the filing and your copy are what matter. Read 16 TAC Section 76.70 →
3. Fifty feet from the septic system
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on-site sewage facility rules in Title 30 of the Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 285, set a 50 foot minimum between a private water well and both the septic tank and the absorption field, and El Paso County subdivision regulations require on-site sewage facilities to comply with those rules. TCEQ on-site sewage facility rules compilation → and El Paso County subdivision regulations →
4. Plug it when it is done
The landowner is responsible for plugging abandoned wells and liable for contamination or injury, per the Texas Water Development Board. Section 76.104 sets the method: pressure filling via a tremie pipe with cement from the bottom up to the land surface, with bentonite grout or compacted clay or caliche alternatives for certain wells, and capping permitted to a 400 pound standard where the well is sound and beneficial to the owner. TCEQ landowner's guide to plugging abandoned water wells →
Priority Groundwater Management Area status
Part of El Paso County is designated by the TCEQ as a Priority Groundwater Management Area, a label for regions with critical groundwater problems. It changes nothing you have to file for a domestic well today, and it is not a permit regime. It is worth understanding as context, because the same pressure it reflects shows up in the well data: the Texas Water Development Board records several hundred feet of water level decline in the Hueco Bolson, primarily from municipal pumping, and notes that those declines have contributed to higher salinity in both bolsons. TCEQ Priority Groundwater Management Areas →
Practically, that means the water level on a well report from 1985 is not a safe planning number for a well drilled today, and it is a reason to weight recent filed reports near your property more heavily than old ones. TWDB Groundwater Management Area 5 →
Where to look up the records yourself
Filed well reports are public and free. The Texas Water Development Board publishes its Groundwater Database, the Water Data Interactive map and the Submitted Drillers Report Database, and between them you can find completion depth, static water level, logged formations and tested yield for wells near a property. Note that a well owner can have report information made confidential under Texas Occupations Code Section 1901.251, so not everything filed is visible. Water Data for Texas groundwater records → and TWDB groundwater management FAQ →
With the rules straight, the next two questions are what it costs and how deep to plan for. The cost guide has the per-foot and complete system ranges, and the aquifer and well depth guide explains which basin sits under your lot. For a quote, send the address through the contact form or check coverage on the service area page.