When you need a well permit

A license and a permit answer different questions. A license, certificate, or registration says a person or firm may do well work in that state. A permit says this well, on this property, may be constructed, altered, or closed. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's private wells page says the quality of water from private domestic wells is not regulated by the federal government under the Safe Drinking Water Act. That federal gap does not mean a state or county has no construction permit. Many of them do, and the permit office is often not the same office that licenses the driller.

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection says each water management district licenses water well contractors and permits the location, construction, repair, and abandonment of wells. The contractor license is valid statewide, but a permit is still required from the district, or from an authority the district has delegated, before construction, repair, or abandonment. Iowa's Department of Natural Resources says private well construction permits are required for water supply wells and for geothermal systems 20 feet or deeper. For an ordinary household well, the county health department issues that permit, except in Osceola County, where the department itself is the contact.

Ohio Revised Code section 3701.344 gives boards of health of city and general health districts the job of administering private water system rules and setting fees, while contractors register each year with the Department of Health. Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy says every county has an ordinance requiring a well permit from the local health department, or notice to that department, before drilling. The state registration of the contractor does not replace that county permit. The permit can set the location, a minimum depth, or other conditions.

Wyoming's State Engineer's Office requires an application for a permit to appropriate groundwater, Form U.W. 5, before construction starts. An owner who is allowed to drill on the owner's own land without a contractor license still needs that permit. In the District of Columbia, the Department of Energy and Environment says a private-property project starts with a soil boring permit from the Department of Buildings. The soil boring number is then used in the department's well application. There is no separate District well-driller certificate in the well rules. The driller must be licensed by a state or a federal district and must hold a District business license.

Some states put more of the control in the license and less in a statewide construction permit. Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources licenses drillers and rigs, and its licensed-drillers page says the state has no statewide construction or siting standards for private water wells. Some municipalities do. A Pennsylvania owner still asks the city, township, or county health department whether a local permit exists. Alaska's Department of Natural Resources requires well logs in the Well Log Tracking System within 45 days. That filing is a record, not a construction permit, and a borough or city may still have its own well code.

The practical order is the same almost everywhere. Find out which office issues the permit for the parcel. Confirm that the person who will do the work holds the state credential for that kind of work. Do not schedule the rig until the permit, or the state's notice of intent where that is the required filing, is actually in hand. Arizona's Department of Water Resources, for example, requires a notice of intent before a licensed driller starts, and the authority under that notice lasts one year. New York requires a registered contractor to send a preliminary notice before drilling and a completion report afterward.

If you are closing a well rather than drilling a new one, assume a permit or a notice is required until the state or local page says otherwise. West Virginia's well rule covers abandonment as certified work, and local health departments permit it. Iowa, Florida, and the District of Columbia also treat abandonment as regulated work. Ask the same office that permits new wells what it requires before an old well is sealed.