Well Permit and Water-Right Fees: What a Private Well Costs Before Drilling

A permit for a new household well costs anywhere from $25 to $1,000 in government fees before the driller starts, depending on who regulates groundwater where you build. Nevada’s State Engineer charges $25 to file a notice of intent to drill; Colorado charges $100 for a well permit application; Wake County, North Carolina, charges $800, which includes its inspections and lab tests; and the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District in Texas charges $1,000 for a new exempt domestic well. The fees are small next to drilling, but the rules that come with them, such as lot-size minimums, use caps and setbacks, can decide whether a well is allowed at all. For the drilling bill itself, depth by region and per-foot rates, see our well drilling cost guide.

For the drilling, pump and 20-year cost comparison with a city connection, see well vs city water cost. This article covers only what you pay and file before and just after the well goes in.

Who issues the permit

There is no national well permit. It comes from one of three kinds of agency, sometimes two:

• The state water-rights agency in Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Montana. In most of these the permit or notice is tied to the right to use groundwater; Idaho’s is a drilling permit.
• A regional water district. In Florida the water management districts issue well construction permits, or delegate them to county health departments. In much of Texas, a local groundwater conservation district sets its own rules and fees.
• The county health department, as in North Carolina, where the county permits, inspects and tests new drinking-water wells.

The driller may file the paperwork for you, but the fee is part of your project cost either way. Ask for it as a separate line in the drilling quote.

Well permit fees in 11 states and districts

Filing fee for one new single-family household well, from each agency’s statute, rule or fee schedule. Checked 2026-09-24.

A few details the table can’t hold. Colorado adds a processing charge for card payments: its own example puts a $100 application at $103.02 by card and $101.00 by eCheck. Washington’s Ecology adds 3% for card payments online and $0 for eCheck, and the decommissioning fee for an old well is $50. Idaho’s statute was read from the April 13, 2026 archived copy because the legislature’s site did not respond to us; the section was last amended in 1998. BSEACD’s posted fee schedule is its FY2025 schedule, effective September 1, 2024, and its permit page still lists $450; confirm the current fee with the district.

Water-right rules that come with the permit

In the western states the permit is also your authorization to use the water, and small household wells are allowed under limits. Those limits, not the fee, are what can stop a project.

• Montana: wells using 35 gallons per minute or less and no more than 10 acre-feet a year are exempt from a full water-right permit. Since a 2024 district court ruling, all phases of a multi-phase subdivision are treated as one appropriation that shares one 10 acre-foot limit. Under House Bill 681, since January 1, 2026 water users must file the $400 notice of intent before using an exempt well; DNRC decides within 10 business days, and an approved notice lasts five years with one five-year extension. Buyers can search notices in DNRC’s water rights query system.
• Texas, Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer district: a domestic or livestock well is exempt only on a property of 10 acres or more and must use less than 7 gallons per minute (10,000 gallons a day). A well that doesn’t qualify, located outside a public water provider’s certificated area, can apply for a limited production permit, also $450, with a meter and annual readings, capped at 250,000 gallons a year.
• Nevada: drilling a domestic well where water service may be available takes a waiver request to the State Engineer ($120). NDWR also lists a $300 fee for an affidavit relinquishing water rights in favor of domestic wells; ask whether it applies to your parcel.
• Arizona: the lower $100 notice fee applies only outside an Active Management Area or Irrigation Non-Expansion Area and only for a domestic well with a pump of 35 gallons per minute or less. Everywhere else it is $150.

In Colorado the $100 fee also applies to an application for a permit to use an existing well.

Connecting to a Colorado city system instead carries its own water-supply cost: see Erie’s water rights and raw water fees and Greeley’s raw water cash-in-lieu requirement.

Required water testing

Whether a test is required depends on where you build. Where it is, the county usually collects the sample after the pump is installed and the well is disinfected.

• Wake County, NC: bacteriological, inorganic and nitrate/nitrite samples must meet standards before the certificate of occupancy is issued. Samples are taken after a 24-hour chlorine contact time and a flush of 24 to 48 hours. Bacterial results take about 48 to 72 hours and chemical results about two weeks. The county says gross alpha (radiation) tests take three to four weeks and have about a 1 in 7 chance of requiring treatment and re-testing. The $800 permit covers the county’s sampling and lab work, and using an existing well for new construction costs $125.
• Buncombe County, NC, FY2027: $75 for a bacterial sample site visit, $100 for bacterial plus chemical, $125 for a chemical panel with nitrate/nitrite, $50 for a self-collected sample, and no charge for the first resample if a result is positive.
• Everywhere else: the EPA recommends testing a private well every year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids and pH, and more often in some households.

Worked example for Buncombe County: if the county collects a bacterial and chemical sample, the $350 permit plus the $100 site visit comes to $450 in county charges for the permit and sampling. In Wake County the comparable figure is the single $800 fee.

Well logs and completion reports

After drilling, a record of the well has to be filed with the state. Ask your driller for a copy.

• Arizona: the driller files a well driller report within 30 days of completing the well, and the owner files a completion report within 30 days after the pump is installed, with pump capacity and drawdown from at least four hours of pumping (A.R.S. 45-600).
• Washington: the driller furnishes a well report to Ecology within 30 days after construction or decommissioning (RCW 18.104.050).
• Montana: once water is put to use, a notice of completion (Form 602) is filed; DNRC can no longer process one without an authorized notice of intent, unless it was pending before January 1, 2026.
• Wake County, NC: the well contractor calls for a grout inspection during construction, and the pump installer must call for a wellhead inspection within 72 hours of completion.

Setbacks that decide where the well can go

On a small lot, the well and the septic system compete for the same ground. Minimum distances from state rules:

Minimum horizontal distance from a private household well. Checked 2026-09-24.

Arizona builds the check into the permit: on a parcel of five acres or less used for a domestic well, the notice of intention to drill must include a site plan showing any septic tank or sewer within 100 feet of the proposed well and written approval from the county health authority. Hays Trinity GCD’s registration form also asks for the distance to the nearest septic tank, drainfield, property line and existing well.

Budget checklist before drilling

1. Find the permitting agency for the parcel: state, water district, groundwater district or county. In Florida’s St. Johns River district, 16 county health departments and the City of Jacksonville issue permits under delegation; ask them for the fee.
2. Confirm the lot qualifies for a household well: minimum acreage, water-use caps, and whether public water is available.
3. Add the permit fee, required tests and the septic permit to the driller’s quote.
4. Site the well and septic system together against the setbacks.
5. After drilling, get the well log and test results and keep them with the deed.

Related: well vs city water cost · septic vs sewer cost · cost to bring utilities to land · Colorado · Arizona · North Carolina · Texas · Florida utility connection costs

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