Private wells in Central Ohio, county by county, from the state's well logs
Every water well drilled in Ohio since the late 1940s is supposed to leave a record: Ohio Revised Code section 1521.05 requires a well log to be filed with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and the department's database held 905,638 of them on September 24, 2026. This page sets out what the logs for domestic wells in Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield, Union, Madison and Pickaway counties show, county by county, as the department's own mapping service computed it in September 2026: how many are on the map, how deep they go, where the water stood when they were finished, what the drillers' well tests recorded and what the drillers said the water came from. A count of well logs is not a count of the houses on a well today.
Last updated September 2026 · Figures are the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' water well log service, computed at the source on September 24, 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base
What a well log is, and which logs are counted here
The Ohio Water Well Database's own front page said on September 24, 2026 that it contains the records of 905,638 water wells and 128,672 well sealing reports filed in the state, and that Ohio Revised Code 1521.05 requires a water well record to be filed with the department for any well that is drilled, regardless of design or method of construction, for purposes that include removing groundwater from an aquifer. What a log records, the statute's list and the thirty-day filing rule are on the page on wells and septic systems.
The figures below come from the department's mapping service for those logs, and that service holds only part of the database: 655,461 logs statewide when it was read on September 24, 2026. The department's description of the map, as Ohio EPA's catalog quotes it, says only those records with known coordinates will show up on it. Every count here is therefore a count of domestic well logs on the map, which is fewer than the logs on file, and only of logs whose use was recorded as domestic; the map also holds older logs with no use recorded, 4,064 of them in Franklin County alone. A log records a well when it was drilled: some of those wells have since been sealed, replaced or connected to a public system, and the logs do not say which.
Seven counties, side by side
| County | Logs recorded as domestic wells, on the map | Median total depth in feet, with the middle half | Median static water level, feet | Median well test rate, gallons per minute | Logs for wells completed 2000 or later | Aquifer types recorded most often |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin | 16,483 | 95 (61 to 132) | 37 | 12 | 3,053 | limestone 5,303; sand and gravel 4,797; gravel 2,236 |
| Delaware | 4,810 | 70 (50 to 97) | 20 | 14 | 790 | limestone 1,977; shale 916; sandstone 570 |
| Licking | 18,237 | 140 (94 to 202) | 54 | 15 | 6,882 | sand and gravel 3,945; sandstone 3,212; shale 2,939 |
| Fairfield | 14,672 | 102 (68 to 155) | 40 | 14 | 5,614 | sandstone 4,088; sand and gravel 3,310; shale 2,681 |
| Union | 7,296 | 100 (72 to 133) | 27 | 15 | 3,286 | limestone 6,391; gravel 238; sand and gravel 221 |
| Madison | 4,742 | 105 (73 to 142) | 30 | 18 | 1,553 | limestone 2,222; sand and gravel 1,354; gravel 681 |
| Pickaway | 5,739 | 93 (59 to 138) | 39 | 14 | 1,883 | sand and gravel 2,667; limestone 1,000; gravel 913 |
Static water levels are medians of the logs that record the water below the surface; logs recording the water at or above ground level, as on a flowing well, are left out of that column.
Licking County's domestic wells are the deepest of the seven, with a median of 140 feet and a middle half running from 94 to 202, and the deepest standing water, a median of 54 feet down. Delaware County's are the shallowest, a median of 70 feet with the water standing a median of 20 feet down. The drillers' own descriptions split the area: limestone is the aquifer type recorded most often in Union, Madison, Delaware and Franklin counties, sand and gravel in Licking and Pickaway, and sandstone in Fairfield. The median well test rate sits between 12 and 18 gallons per minute in every county.
The logs also date the wells. The median completion year of a log recorded as domestic is 1975 in Franklin County and 1978 in Delaware County, against 1991 in Madison, 1993 in Pickaway, 1994 in Licking and Fairfield and 1998 in Union, and more than a third of the logs in Fairfield, Licking and Union counties are for wells completed in 2000 or later.
What none of this says about a house
Scope, plainly. These are medians across thousands of logs, each written by a driller on the day a well was finished; they describe the county, not a property. A particular house's own log, where one was filed, can be looked up in the department's database by county, township and road, by address or by record number. Why a shower on a well can run weak, what the state's rules say about pumping tests and peak demand, and how often each agency says to test the water, are on the page on wells and septic systems, and what hard water does to a shower is on the hardness page. What happens to a well when the power goes out, and what the Ohio Department of Health says to do about it, is on the page on power outages in Central Ohio.
The short version. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources' map of well logs, read on September 24, 2026, holds between 4,742 and 18,237 domestic well logs in each of seven Central Ohio counties. Median depth runs from 70 feet in Delaware County to 140 in Licking, and the median static water level from 20 feet to 54. Limestone is the aquifer drillers recorded most often in Union, Madison, Delaware and Franklin counties, and sand and gravel or sandstone in the other three. The map holds only logs with known coordinates, and a log is a record of a well when it was drilled, not a count of the homes on a well today.
Sources
Every figure, date and quotation on this page comes from one of these documents, read on the date given. Where two of them disagree, the page says so.
- Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Water Well Database, read September 24, 2026.
- Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Water Wells map service, Well Logs layer (statistics requested by county), queried September 24, 2026.
- Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Water Wells (ODNR), catalog description, updated November 15, 2023; read September 2026.
- Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules, Section 1521.05, Well construction logs - well sealing reports, effective January 1, 2016; read September 2026.
Common questions
How deep are private wells in Franklin County, Ohio?
The domestic well logs on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources map give a median total depth of 95 feet in Franklin County, with the middle half of wells between 61 and 132 feet, as the department's service computed it on September 24, 2026 from 16,483 logs. The median static water level recorded when the wells were finished is 37 feet, and the median well test rate 12 gallons per minute. The aquifers the drillers recorded most often are limestone and sand and gravel.
Which Central Ohio county has the deepest private wells?
Licking County, by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' domestic well logs as read on September 24, 2026: a median depth of 140 feet, with the middle half between 94 and 202, and a median static water level of 54 feet. Delaware County has the shallowest, a median of 70 feet with water standing a median of 20 feet down. Fairfield, Madison, Union, Franklin and Pickaway counties fall between, with medians of 93 to 105 feet.
How do I find the well log for my house in Ohio?
Through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Ohio Water Well Database, which on September 24, 2026 said it held the records of 905,638 water wells and 128,672 sealing reports. Its search tools find records by county, township and road, by address, by record number, or by a point, an area or a polygon on a map. Ohio Revised Code 1521.05 requires a record to be filed for any well that is drilled, but a house whose well predates the records, or whose log carries no location, may not turn up on the map.
What aquifer do private wells in Central Ohio draw from?
It depends on the county, by what the drillers recorded on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' domestic well logs. Limestone is recorded most often in Union County, with 6,391 of 7,296 logs, and in Madison, Delaware and Franklin counties. Sand and gravel leads in Pickaway and Licking counties, and sandstone in Fairfield County, where sand and gravel and then shale follow. Those are the drillers' own words for the material the water came from.
How many private wells are there in Franklin County?
No source read for this page counts the houses on a well today. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources' map held 16,483 domestic well logs for Franklin County on September 24, 2026, but the department's own description says only records with known coordinates appear on the map, which statewide was 655,461 of the 905,638 well records in its database. A log records a well when it was drilled, and some of those wells have since been sealed or replaced.
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