Well Drilling in Hall County, GA

• Census Bureau 2020 place codes list the cities of Gainesville, Flowery Branch, Oakwood, Lula and Gillsville and the town of Clermont in Hall County, plus parts of Buford city and the towns of Braselton and Rest Haven, which the same file also lists under other Georgia counties. The USGS Geographic Names Information System records Murrayville, Chestnut Mountain and Belmont as populated places in Hall County.
• To vet a company, check the licensed water well contractor and certified pump contractor lists on Georgia EPD's Water Well Standards Act Contractors page.

• Drilled household wells, each needing a Hall County construction permit before work begins
• Irrigation wells, which Hall's rules define to cover agriculture, silviculture, golf courses, fish farms and land beautification but not single-family lawn or garden irrigation
• Modifications to existing wells, which fall under the same construct-or-modify permit rule
• Monitoring wells required by Environmental Health, built under the direction of a professional engineer or professional geologist
• Filling, sealing and plugging abandoned wells according to the Water Well Standards Act
• Pump installation and service, followed by the chlorination step in Rule 770-5-.09(3)

• County permit: Hall County Environmental Health's fee schedule, effective January 1, 2024 and still the schedule linked from the department's page in October 2026, lists well permits at $150. The 'Other' section where that fee appears also lists a $150 charge for a reinspection or missed appointment; ask the office whether it would apply to a well inspection.
• Placement limits: Hall's permit form says approval covers the approved location only, and a changed location goes back to Environmental Health for review and approval. The county setbacks, and the rule keeping wells out of easements unless specific permission is given, limit where on the lot that location can be.
• Rock type: across the Piedmont and Blue Ridge, HA 730-G reports average well yields generally of about 15 to 20 gallons per minute, with some wells approaching 500. Among rock types, granite gneiss is expected to out-yield mica schist and mica gneiss, quartzite comes close to granite gneiss where it occurs, and granite's output depends directly on its degree of fracturing.
• Fracture luck: in the atlas's account, intensely fractured rock gives the most dependable wells, and wells sited along lineaments or known fracture traces consistently yield more than randomly placed wells.
• Estimating: the site's cost calculator prices each foot of entered depth by the ground type selected, then layers on a generic permit line and, if chosen, pump and pressure-tank amounts. Hall County wells have no typical depth printed in the agency sources reviewed for this page, so no local total appears here; put Hall's $150 permit fee in place of that generic line and get the driller's per-foot price in writing.

• What the permit covers: under item 1 of Section Four, no person may construct or modify a water well, an irrigation well, or a monitoring well required by Environmental Health without first securing a construction permit from the County Board of Health, and the permit stays valid for no more than twelve months from the date of issue.
• What to submit: the department's Well Permit Requirements sheet asks for a recorded plat; the well driller's spotting of the well location on that plat, with the driller's signature, license number and phone number, and a stake marking the location on the property; a completed application form; payment of the well permit fee; and information on any existing septic tank, if applicable.
• Who answers for what: the application form marks both the owner and the contractor responsible for location, the contractor for construction, and the owner for protection, chlorination and the bacteria sample. Item 4 of the rules makes the well contractor notify the County Health Department of the intent to drill, supplying the information the council's forms require; DPH describes that notice as due before actual construction.
• Setbacks: item 5 says wells shall be located, on the basis of hydrological and geological determinations, not less than 50 feet from a septic tank; 100 feet from an absorption field, pit privy, or animal or fowl enclosure; 150 feet from oxidation ponds; 10 feet from a municipal sewer line; and outside any easement without specific permission. Statewide, DPH's list also keeps wells 150 feet from any cesspool or seepage pit, and on land subject to flooding DPH allows a well only if its casing rises at least two feet above the highest known flood of record.
• Drainage and wellhead: items 6 to 9 call for grading so surface water runs away from the well, an intercepting ditch that should be built on the uphill side of a hillside well, a four-inch concrete slab extending two feet out from the well in all directions and sloping away from the casing, and an overlapping water-tight cover at the top of the casing or pipe sleeve.
• Before first use: item 10 requires disinfection when construction or modification is finished, and item 2 says no person shall use a well without a final location inspection from the County Board of Health, and a well must meet all setback distances and wellhead protection requirements. The permit form calls this the final as-built location inspection.
• State standards: item 13 requires every minimum construction standard in the Water Well Standards Act to be met, which EPD cites as O.C.G.A. 12-5-120 through 138. Under Rule 770-5-.08(4), any fluid used while drilling has to be disinfected, or come from a source that meets every maximum contaminant level set under the Georgia Safe Drinking Water Act.
• Licensing: Rule 770-3-.01(1) sends anyone who wants to be in the well construction or pump installation business in Georgia to the Water Well Standards Advisory Council for a water well contractor license or a pump contractor certificate, and under paragraph (6) nothing is approved, issued or renewed before an acceptable bond or irrevocable letter of credit arrives; exam and experience rules fill out Chapter 770-3. Under Rule 770-7-.01(h), letting an unlicensed driller or uncertified pump contractor use or work under a license or certificate in any way is a ground for suspension or revocation, except for a Full-Time Employee, a licensed driller, a certified pump contractor, or a bona fide Business Partner of the licensed or certified contractor; Rule 770-2-.01 defines those two terms and the documents that show them.
• Abandoned wells: item 11 of Hall's rules requires abandoned irrigation, monitoring and water wells to be filled, sealed and plugged according to the Water Well Standards Act. According to DPH, the present owner is responsible for that work, and any well no longer in use counts as abandoned: generally 'temporarily' after 365 days or more without use and 'permanently' after three years. Confirm the required plugging method with Hall County Environmental Health before the job is scheduled.

• Regolith: HA 730-G describes the bedrock as overlain by regolith made up of saprolite (decomposed rock), soil and alluvium. Saprolite, the biggest component, reaches 150 feet in places, and the atlas stresses that its thickness varies enormously. The atlas likens the regolith to a reservoir that feeds the fractures below, and notes that wells in crystalline-rock areas are ordinarily cased through it.
• Topography: the atlas says wells yielding 50 gallons per minute or more are most common where the regolith in broad draws and valleys is over 50 feet thick, and that wells on slopes and hills generally give only small amounts of water.
• Depth and fractures: HA 730-G explains that fractures here are usually more plentiful near the top of the rock, since rising lithostatic (rock) pressure tends to seal them deeper down. If a well meets only a few small, shallow fractures, its yield may be adequate at first and can fall off suddenly after they drain.
• Water levels: the USGS Georgia groundwater-conditions page says water in the crystalline-rock aquifers is held in discontinuous joints and fractures, may be confined or unconfined, and can be greatly affected by local water use and climate.
• Water quality: according to HA 730-G, water from these aquifers is generally suitable for drinking, and apart from fluoride, iron, manganese and, locally, sulfate, dissolved constituents seldom exceed state and federal drinking-water standards. The atlas adds that oxidation and filtration usually will alleviate large iron and manganese concentrations.

Gainesville · Flowery Branch · Oakwood · Clermont · Lula · Gillsville · Murrayville · Chestnut Mountain · Belmont