Lemoore runs on groundwater: nine city wells in town, private wells across the dairy and row-crop country around it. The town sits in the Tulare Lake Subbasin, which the State Water Board put on probation in April 2024. New household wells here now run a median 400 feet deep. Since 2023, 18 households with a Lemoore address have filed state dry well reports.
Big River Drilling is a licensed C-57 well drilling contractor based in Riverdale, about 10 miles north of Lemoore. Our main service is water well drilling: new and replacement wells by mud rotary, cased, sealed, developed and pump-tested. Our pump crew handles well pump repair, new pumps, pressure tanks and the lines to the house. Call or text (559) 867-3806 for a free estimate.
Tell us about the well or the water problem. We come out, look at the site and give you a free estimate.
Lemoore's city water comes from nine wells: three in a well field north of town, six inside the city. A tenth well stands by for emergencies. West of town, Naval Air Station Lemoore, the Navy's largest master jet base, runs its own system on surface water.
Out in the farm country, homes pump from their own wells. Northwest of town, the Island District covers about 35 square miles, a triangle that starts where the Kings River forks. Federal drinking water records list no community water system there, and even Island Union Elementary runs its own well.
Arsenic turns up in groundwater around Lemoore. The city blends its wells to keep arsenic and color down, and Armona's water district treats its wells for arsenic. The State Water Board suggests testing a private well once a year. A state-certified lab can do it, and we can point you to one.
Lemoore grew up on the north shore of Tulare Lake, which dried up once its rivers were diverted for irrigation. After the storms of early 2023, the lake came back south of town, covering more than 114,000 acres. Milk leads Kings County's farm products, followed by pistachios, cattle, processing tomatoes and cotton. The 2022 farm census ranked the county fourth in the nation for milk sales and first for cotton.
The state calls the Tulare Lake Subbasin critically overdrafted: on average, water is pumped out faster than it refills. In March 2023, the Department of Water Resources found the local groundwater plan inadequate. The State Water Board put the subbasin on probation on April 16, 2024. As of August 2026, a court bars enforcement in just two groundwater agencies' areas, and Lemoore is in neither.
Water Board staff say falling water levels can dry up shallow wells and pull polluted water toward well screens. Pumping below the Corcoran Clay, an old lake-bed layer, likely causes most of the sinking. That sinking is often permanent, and it can damage canals and levees and collapse well casings. From 2006 to 2022, one of the valley's two main sinking zones centered on Corcoran, southeast of Lemoore.
Household wells get lighter rules. The state excludes a home well from reporting and fees if it pumps 2 acre-feet a year or less. That water must go to household use only, and 2 acre-feet is about 650,000 gallons.
Lemoore sits in the South Fork Kings GSA, one of five groundwater agencies in the subbasin. The GSA gives parcels of 5 acres or less 2 acre-feet a year automatically. Larger parcels get pumping allocations, and the GSA starts charging fees and penalties on October 1, 2026.
Early farm families here dug shallow wells, because the water table sat unusually high. Kings County's median new household well went from about 210 feet in the 1990s to 400 feet since 2020. State records list 125 new household wells with a Lemoore address since 2020. Half of them run 238 to 500 feet deep.
The local groundwater plan splits the aquifer into zones, and the A-zone is the top 100 feet. The B-zone runs from there down to the Corcoran Clay, which USGS maps put about 500 feet down near Lemoore. The typical new household well here draws from the B-zone. State staff named the A- and B-zones the most exposed to falling water levels.
The state's dry well system holds 50 household reports with a Lemoore address, though reporting is voluntary. Kings County households that reported a dry well gave a median well depth of 136 feet. A well with depth to spare can take a lower pump setting. If not, the fix is a new, deeper well.
Sometimes the well still has water and the trouble is the pump or its controls. A worn-out pump calls for well pump replacement, sized to the well's depth and the household's demand. A waterlogged pressure tank makes the pump cycle on and off, and we replace tanks, switches and gauges. A new well also needs trenching for the water line and the pump's power.
From our Riverdale yard, it is about 11 road miles to central Lemoore, most of it south on Highway 41. We take well and pump calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Communities and areas we serve around Lemoore: Island District, Stratford, Armona, Grangeville, Hardwick.
Lemoore ZIP codes served: 93245.
Free estimates throughout Kings County and the surrounding area.
(559) 867-3806
New domestic water wells drilled by mud rotary, cased and sealed to the county's standards, developed and pump tested, then finished with the pump, the pressure tank and the lines to the house. Replacement wells when an old well goes dry or silts up.
Learn More
No water, low pressure or a pump that never shuts off? We trace the fault from the breaker down to the pump and repair what failed.
Learn More
We size and set submersible well pumps for new wells and replace worn pumps in existing wells. The drop pipe, wire, controls and the electrical to the pump come with the job.
Learn More
We install and replace bladder and galvanized well pressure tanks, plus the switches, gauges and check valves. When the pump clicks on and off, we find out why.
Learn More
Trenching from the well to the house, with the water line and the pump's power conduit in one trench. New lines for new wells, and repairs when an old line breaks or leaks.
Learn More
The well quit and the taps are dry. We take well and pump calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Learn More
Irrigation and stock wells for farms, orchards, dairies and ranches around Riverdale. We drill by mud rotary, test pump the well and handle the permit paperwork.
Learn MoreReal reviews from real well and pump jobs, 9 reviews on Google.
Helped out my parents asap when the others wanted us to wait 2 weeks. He came out same day!!!! and changed the valve in only 10 minutes “thank you sir!! “ (water well drilling)
Open 24 hours. The owner is always available and always answers the phone or calls back. He’s very attentive, and when we have problems with the well, he will come out and check it immediately. He takes full responsibility for his work, which is excellent. we just call and he’ll walk us through the situation and it’s usually something simple. He also was able to get us a well at reduced rate through a program that he works with
Great fokes to do business with
A few of the questions we hear most around Lemoore. If yours is not here, call and ask.
Tell us about the property or what your well is doing, and we will set up a free estimate. For a well or pump problem, call or text (559) 867-3806, day or night.
Tell us about the well or the water problem. We come out, look at the site and give you a free estimate.
