Well Construction Permit Information
Permit Areas
Well Types
- Large Capacity Water Supply Wells
- Monitoring Wells
- Recovery Wells
- Well Construction Technical Assistance
Large Capacity Water Supply Wells
- Permits are required to construct any water supply well or water well system with a design capacity equal to or greater than 100,000 gallons per day.
- A Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area (CCPCUA) water withdrawal permit is required for the following counties: Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, Onslow, Pamlico, Pitt, Washington, Wayne, and Wilson.
- Applicable well construction standards are described in 15A NCAC 2C .0107.
- Permit applications are to be submitted to the appropriate DWR Regional Office of the region in which the proposed well or well system will be constructed.
- Permits are issued by DWR Regional Offices within 15 days of receipt of a complete permit application package.
Monitoring Wells
- Permits are required to construct any monitoring well or monitoring well system constructed to assess hydrogeologic conditions on property not owned by the well owner.
- Applicable well construction standards are described in 15A NCAC 2C .0108.
- Permit applications are to be submitted to the appropriate DWR Regional Office of the region in which the proposed well or well system will be constructed.
- Permits are issued by DWR Regional Offices within 15 days of receipt of a complete permit application package.
Recovery Wells
- Permits are required to construct any well or well system constructed to recover contaminated groundwater or other liquids from the subsurface.
- Applicable well construction standards are described in 15A NCAC 2C .0108.
- Permit applications are to be submitted to the appropriate DWR Regional Office of the region in which the proposed well or well system will be constructed.
- Permits are issued by DWR Regional Offices within 15 days of receipt of a complete permit application package.
Related Programs Managed by Public Water Supply Section
Public Water Supply Section Plan Review – Wells that will serve a Community or Non-Transient Non-Community public water system must be approved by the Public Water Supply Section, Plan Review Unit.
Drinking Water Protection Program - This program serves the state by initiating proactive protection strategies to identify and mitigate threats to surface water supplies. Work is done in partnership with various agencies and programs to promote local drinking water protection.
Wellhead Protection Program - A pollution prevention/management program used to protect underground sources of drinking water by reducing the susceptibility of wells to contamination, and is part of a national groundwater protection strategy to prevent contamination of groundwaters that are used as public drinking water supplies. It is a valuable supplement to existing N.C. groundwater protection programs, intended for city and county governments and water supply operators who wish to provide added protection to their local groundwater supplies.
Well Construction Technical Assistance
- Private water wells are handled by county health departments of the Division of Environmental Health.
- Well complaints are handled by the Water Quality Regional Operations (WQROS) of the appropriate DWR Regional Office
- Well driller certification rules and exams are handled by the Well Contractors Certification Commission.
- Injection wells are handled by the Underground Injection Control Program.
- Other well issues, please contact Michael Rogers.
Permitting processes can be found here.