What the driller report is

The driller report is the written record of how the well was built. States give it different names. New York calls it a water well completion report. Kansas uses form WWC-5. Wyoming uses Form U.W. 6, the statement of completion. Alaska files a well log in the Well Log Tracking System. Illinois publishes a water well construction report. South Dakota requires a well construction report. The idea is the same. Someone who was allowed to drill writes down what they found and what they installed, and a public office keeps that paper or that electronic file.

You should receive a copy. New York's Environmental Conservation Law, as the Department of Environmental Conservation explains it, requires the contractor to file the completion report with the department and to give a copy to the well owner. The department's consumer sheet says the department does not charge a fee to submit that report. It also says there is no standard well depth. Depth depends on geology, water quality, yield, and equipment. The report is how you learn what this well actually is, rather than what a neighbor's well was.

Alaska's statute and regulation, printed on the Well Log Tracking System page, require water well contractors to file location, the driller's log, pumping tests, flow measurements, estimated elevation, and water quality determinations within 45 days of completion. South Dakota's renewal instructions cite a law that requires the construction report within 30 days, and the department will not treat renewal as complete if reports are missing. Kansas contractors file a WWC-5 for each well constructed, reconstructed, or plugged during the license year. Those deadlines are why you ask, on the day the rig leaves, when your copy will arrive.

The report is not a permit and it is not a water-quality clearance. The permit, notice of intent, or start card is what allowed the work to begin. The laboratory sheet is what describes the water. The driller report sits between them. It should agree with the permit on the location. It should identify the driller's license or registration number. It often describes depth, casing, grout, and the rock or sediment that was drilled, because those facts are what a later driller, a buyer, or a health department needs. Do not treat a blank or a one-line invoice as the report.

Different wells produce different reports. A monitoring well, a geothermal borehole, and a household well can have different forms. North Dakota licenses those activities separately. Louisiana's statute covers water wells and also lists monitoring wells, heat pump wells, and other holes, while excluding oil and gas wells. Ask for the form that matches your well. If an old well was plugged instead of drilled, ask for the plugging report. Texas requires a plugging report within 30 days. Mississippi keeps records of plugged holes. Oklahoma publishes a plugging report alongside the completion report.

Read the report when it arrives. Check the date, the address, the depth, and the name of the driller against the contract and the permit. If a number is wrong, ask for a corrected filing while the crew still remembers the well. A wrong location in a state database is hard to fix years later. Keep a paper or electronic copy with the deed papers. Alaska's well guidance tells owners to keep the log with other property records because a missing log can complicate a later sale. Lenders and buyers ask for it because it is the only independent description of the hole.

If the contractor will not name the report or the office that receives it, that is a reason to pause. Every state page cited here treats the report as part of the job, not as a courtesy.