Well Surveillance Program

Well Sampling and Surveys 

*Note: This page contains materials in the Portable Document Format (PDF) and the ZIP file format. The free Adobe Reader may be required to view the PDF files and the free WinZip  may be required to decompress them prior to reading them.

The Well Surveillance Program protects public health by monitoring and identifying threats to the drinking water supply, ensuring that contaminated sites posing the greatest risk get cleaned up first, and preventing long-term consumption of contaminated drinking water.

Drinking water wells are vulnerable to contamination by industrial chemicals, petroleum, or agricultural chemicals. Well owners are typically not responsible for the contamination, and may be unaware of the dangers. In 1984, the State of Florida created what is now the Well Surveillance Program to ensure that potentially contaminated wells are located and tested. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Department of Health (DOH) both have responsibility for program. Field sampling and surveys are carried out by County Health Department personnel.

Well Surveys / Sampling

The two main activities of the Well Surveillance Program are well surveys and sampling. Surveys are typically requested by the DEP as part of their cleanup responsibilities. Department personnel search for drinking water wells around areas of known or suspected contamination. These surveys help the DEP to manage and prioritize the cleanup of contaminated sites. Sites that pose the greatest risk to both drinking water and the environment are the first to be handled.

Many of the wells located during these surveys are sampled for chemical contamination. Other wells may be sampled based on proximity to known or suspected man-made chemical sources. Since 2005, the Well Surveillance program has surveyed over 19,000 sites and sampled nearly 48,000 wells. Over 4,400 of those wells had chemical concentrations greater than state and/or federal drinking water standards. Private and other small wells with chemical concentrations greater than federal and/or state standards are offered assistance

from the DEP’s Water Supply Restoration Funding Program (opens in new window).
uch wells are usually either provided with a filter to treat the contaminant or connected to a central water source. This prevents long-term consumption of contaminated drinking water.

GIS Mapping

Make your own map EH Water - Program (opens in new window)

EH Water Quick Start Guide (<1 MB pdf, opens in new window)

EH Water Data Dictionary (<1 MB pdf, opens in new window)

Data Available for Download

The Well Surveillance Program maintains an extensive database. Two tables, Wells and Facilities, are used to generate our well surveys. These tables are available for download in either a Excel (.xlsx) or ASCII text (.txt) format. This table consists of data relating to all privately and publicly owned potable wells investigated as part of the Well Surveillance Program. The table contains addresses and geographic coordinates of the wells. For information regarding the test results of specific wells included in this table, please contact us.

Wells table - updated 7/22/2024

Wells (Zipped XLS - 6Mb) (opens in new window)

Wells (Text - Zipped- 6.2MB) (opens in new window)

fields and field definitions for the Wells table (pdf,<1mb) (opens in new window)

-------------------------------------------
Facility table - updated 7/22/2024

Facility (Zipped XLS - 6Mb) (opens in new window)

Facility (Text - Zipped- 6.2MB) (opens in new window)

Fields and field definitions for the Facilities table (pdf, <1mb) (opens in new window)

Instructions to extract the .zip file:
1. Click "Download Zip file"
2. Click "Open this file from its current location"
3. Click "Ok"
4. Click the "extract" button
5. Choose a file folder to extract to
6. Click "extract"
7. The file has now been downloaded to the folder you selected

Please note that older versions of MS Excel can open dbase files, but may not display all of the records. If you are not sure about your version of Excel, you may want to use a dedicated reader or download the text version. Website update frequency - The data tables will be updated on the first weekday of each month by program staff.

Technical Guide

The Well Surveillance Technical Guide

(pdf<3mb, opens in new window) is the program’s policy and guidance manual.