Tulare drinks groundwater: 23 city wells serve the town, and private wells serve the rural homes and dairies around it. Those wells tap the Kaweah Subbasin, which the state lists as critically overdrafted, and the Tule Subbasin south of town. Tulare County has logged more dry-well reports than any other county in California. New household wells keep going deeper, and the wells that went dry were mostly shallower ones.
Big River Drilling is a licensed C-57 well drilling contractor based in Riverdale. We come over for water well drilling: new water wells by mud rotary, finished with the pump, tank and lines. Our pump crew also handles well pump repair, pump installation, pressure tanks and water line trenching for existing wells. 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.
The City of Tulare pumps all of its water from its own wells. Carbon filters treat the water at several of them. Matheny Tract, on the south side of town, once drew from a small system with an arsenic problem. In 2016 the State Water Board ordered it onto city water, the state's first mandatory consolidation order.
ZIP code 93274 covers all of Tulare, but only about 9 percent of its land lies inside the city. The rest is mostly farm country, dotted with dairies and rural homes on their own wells. The state Department of Water Resources (DWR) lists 135 new household wells with a Tulare address since 2020. Tipton, Pixley and Woodville run small town water systems; Waukena has none, and its school pumps its own well.
Tulare County sold more milk than any other county in the country in the 2022 farm census. Every February, Tulare hosts the World Ag Expo at the International Agri-Center. The town takes its name from Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes.
DWR's dry well reporting system holds 1,874 household reports from Tulare County, nearly double the next county's count. Most were logged in 2016 and 2017, with about 400 more in 2021 and 2022. Of the 158 reports with a Tulare address, about nine in ten sit outside the city limits. Where those reports list a depth, half of the dry wells were 160 to 200 feet deep.
New wells go deeper now. In the 1990s and 2000s, the typical new household well with a Tulare address ran about 280 feet. Since 2020, half of the new ones in DWR's records have landed between 400 and 420 feet. Toward Pixley, recent wells run deeper still, with half between about 480 and 500 feet.
If the pump tests fine and the well is out of water, the fix is a new well. If your well has gone dry, ask us about the well replacement assistance programs that serve valley households. We can point you to the right program and help you get the application started.
SGMA is California's groundwater law, and local agencies carry it out subbasin by subbasin. In 2020, farms pumped more than 94 percent of the groundwater used in the Kaweah Subbasin. On average, about 104,000 acre-feet more leaves the ground each year than soaks back in. An acre-foot would cover one acre of land a foot deep.
Three groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) manage the Kaweah Subbasin, and the City of Tulare helped form one, Mid-Kaweah. DWR found their plans inadequate in 2023. After the GSAs rewrote them, the State Water Board returned the subbasin to DWR in December 2025. The 2024 plans set limits on pumping and a mitigation program for drinking water wells hurt by falling levels.
South of town, the Tule Subbasin has been on state probation since September 2024. Household wells using up to two acre-feet a year, for home use only, are excluded from state reporting and fees. In both subbasins, Tulare County permits the well, and the GSA reviews the application and can add conditions.
When the water table drops, a pump set for the old level can pull air, and the taps sputter. We check the water level in the well before we change anything. If there is room below the pump, well pump installation at a deeper setting may bring the water back. We also track down breakers that keep tripping, bad pressure switches, worn check valves and worn-out pumps.
Pump heads and tanks here sit above ground, since the valley has no real frost line. We set pressure tanks on a concrete pad beside the well head, with the control box close by. A tank that has lost its air charge makes the pump click on and off, which wears it out early. When a tank has failed, pressure tank replacement takes that strain off the pump.
County setbacks decide where a new well goes, and the trench and the lines run from there to the house. We dig the trench, lay the water line and the electrical conduit to the pump, and backfill it. From Riverdale we come over on Highway 41, Highway 198 past Hanford, then Highway 99 south into Tulare.
Communities and areas we serve around Tulare: Matheny Tract, East Tulare Villa, Tipton, Waukena, Woodville, Goshen, Plainview, Poplar-Cotton Center, Pixley.
Tulare ZIP codes served: 93274, 93275.
Free estimates throughout Tulare 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The well quit and the taps are dry. We take well and pump calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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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 Tulare. 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.
