Collection includes approximately 500,000 paper copies of well permits and well completion reports for the State of Maryland, beginning with the origin of the permit system in 1945 to current year, are filed by county and permit number. Some include location maps, pump test data, sand analyses, geophysical logs, chemical analyses and other analyses performed on the hole or well. Many permits/completion reports contain annotations by MGS staff. 100 boxes of microfilm duplicate some paper copies and may complete gaps in paper copy coverage. Data are available on microfiche for the period 1945-1980; microfiche do not include all data included on paper copies.
This collection is a primary research source for Maryland Geological Survey (MGS); many permits/completion reports have annotations by MGS staff. The collection is the sole complete set of hard (paper) copy known to exist for the state. (Electronic and paper copies of these records exist within the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), 23 county health departments, Baltimore City, and well drilling companies. However, paper copies are not retained permanently by all organizations. MDE was assigned responsibility for well permits and completion reports relatively recently and did not have paper copies for the early years of the permit system.) Much of the data in this collection is contained in an MS-Access database maintained by MDE. However, entries in the electronic database do not contain all of the information in the MGS (paper) data set.
