Well Drilling in Hernando County, FL

• Census Bureau 2020 place codes for Hernando County list Brooksville as a city and Spring Hill, Hernando Beach, Masaryktown, Ridge Manor, Nobleton, Istachatta, Spring Lake and Weeki Wachee Gardens as census-designated places, all still in the Bureau's current TIGERweb layers. The City of Weeki Wachee was abolished by CS/HB 1215 in 2020, so that name appears here only for the river and springs.
• Hernando County's FY2025-2026 budget says its Utilities Department serves over 165,000 residents with water and wastewater. Whether a main reaches a given parcel is a question for the department.
• DOH-Hernando, the Florida Department of Health's county office, says it does not regulate or sample private wells, though owners may bring in their own samples for bacteriological testing (see the testing note under permits). A well serving several homes or a business may be a limited-use public water system, which needs a DOH-Hernando permit; its Water Systems page gives the connection, population and day-count limits.

• New private wells under a SWFWMD well construction permit
• Irrigation wells, including larger ones that first need a District water use permit
• Pump and pressure tank replacement
• Plugging abandoned or incomplete wells under a District permit
• Coliform bacteria, nitrate and lead sampling
• Tracing rotten-egg odor or iron staining before treatment
• Disinfecting a well system, then submitting recheck samples

• Permit fee: Rule 40D-1.607(6), F.A.C. (last amended August 17, 2014), sets SWFWMD's application fee for building or repairing a well at $50 for a non-public supply well, $100 for a non-public supply potable well in a Chapter 62-524 delineated area, $130 for a public supply well or one built to public supply standards, and $500 for a public supply well in a delineated area. Abandonment applications carry no fee, and permit extensions are covered by the original fee (40D-3.321(4)).
• Delineated areas: Rule 62-524.430 lists three maps under Hernando, titled Masaryktown, Port Richey NE and Weekiwachee Springs (each dated 11/94). SWFWMD's 2007 brochure on these known contamination areas says a new potable well there should reach below the surficial sand deposits, has its design reviewed by a professional geologist, costs more in drilling materials because it goes deeper, and must be sampled after construction and before drinking use.
• Casing: Rule 62-532.500(3) runs casing in sand or other unconsolidated material to the well screen. Casing seated in rock must be continuous from the top of the well to at least the top of the uppermost consolidated unit, reach to or below the water level of the aquifer supplying the well, and case every caving zone below that unit. The 1985 USGS report put the depth to limestone at zero at the coast and slightly more than 100 feet along the Brooksville Ridge, averaging about 50 feet.
• Iron: the USGS report found iron generally highest in the east near the rivers and in the west near the coast, said high iron appeared to be associated with wells that have shallow casings, and said longer casing might alleviate some high-iron problems.
• This site's cost calculator prices depth per foot by the geology you choose, using Angi, HomeGuide and HomeAdvisor rates, and adds a generic $200-$500 permit line plus, by default, a pump and pressure tank. Swap in the SWFWMD fee above and get a written per-foot quote.

• Who may drill: a water well contractor needs a license from a water management district, valid in every district (s. 373.323, F.S.). Anyone else who builds, repairs or abandons a well, or runs drilling equipment for that work, must work as a licensed contractor's employee or under that contractor's supervision, or be exempt under s. 373.326 (s. 373.336(1)(b)). Licensing needs, among other things, two years of experience, 12 hours of approved coursework and a score of 70 percent or more on the state exam (Rules 62-531.300 and 62-531.350).
• Pumps: the statute's definition of well construction leaves out installing pumps and pumping equipment (s. 373.303(2)). Licensed water well contractors may install, repair and modify pumps and tanks under Section 614 of the Florida Building Code, Plumbing, and install pumps, tanks and water conditioning equipment for all water systems (s. 373.323(10)).
• Applying: the owner, or the contractor for the owner, files the state Permit Application to Construct, Repair, Modify or Abandon a Well with any required fee (Rule 62-532.400(1)). To obtain it, the applicant must show a current contractor license or qualify for the owner exemption in the FAQs, submit a complete application meeting Chapter 373 and Chapter 40D-3, hold any required water use permit, have no overdue completion reports, and show the well will not adversely impact the water resource (40D-3.301). Receiving the permit is permission to begin; emergency permits are covered in the emergency note.
• Permit life: 90 days. A written request made before expiry, showing conditions have not changed substantially so the well will not adversely impact the water resource, extends it in 90-day steps to at most one year from issuance; no work may start or continue after a permit lapses (40D-3.321).
• Water use permits: Rule 40D-2.041 sets the withdrawal, diameter and location thresholds. Where an individual water use permit is required, Rule 40D-3.045 holds back the well permit until it issues, apart from the data-gathering and pending-application exceptions that rule lists.
• Siting: Rule 40D-3.505 ties spacing from septic systems and contamination areas to s. 381.0065, F.S., and Rule 62-532.400(7), and has the District increase it where needed to protect health and safety. Among the setbacks for single-family potable wells, SWFWMD's August 2020 Q&A lists 75 feet from any septic tank and drainfield and 75 feet from drainage or retention ponds.
• Wellhead: private, multi-family and irrigation well casing must stand at least 12 inches above finished grade. Where a structure or traffic hazard or a public health threat may exist, it may instead end in an enclosure at grade that allows vertical access and drains by gravity, with the casing top sealed watertight no more than 18 inches below grade (62-532.500(4)(b)2).
• Grouting: casing seated in a consolidated formation is seated or sealed with neat cement grout. Where the bore hole is wider than the casing's inside diameter, the casing is centered and the annulus filled bottom to top with neat cement at least a nominal 2 inches thick for casing 4 inches or more in outside diameter, or 1 inch for smaller casing; if grout circulation is lost, the zone is bridged through a tremie pipe and grouting finished that way or by another approved method. A district may grant individual exceptions, or with the Department's concurrence exempt areas, from cement grouting the annulus through an unconsolidated formation, on a showing that the material caves in at once and fills the annulus when drilling-fluid circulation stops and that no flow space forms along the casing that did not exist before the well (62-532.500(3)(i)1, 4 and 5).
• Driven casing: casing driven into natural earth, or into a bore hole no wider than its outside diameter, is sealed by adding dry bentonite to the casing string at land surface so it rides down the outside as the casing is driven, applied to keep a grout seal around the casing (62-532.500(3)(i)2). SWFWMD's Rule 40D-3.517(3) sets an average mesh size between 4 and 20 U.S. standard sieve, or grain size between 5 mm and 0.85 mm, added at the beginning and during construction. Driven-casing wells for public water systems, limited use commercial and limited use community public water systems, potable wells permitted under Chapter 62-524 and bottled water plants need a stronger minimum seal: the last five feet of hole undercut or under-reamed before the casing is seated, with at least one foot of that enlarged hole in the consolidated formation where the casing will seat; the whole enlarged section filled with cement grout and the casing driven through it into that one-foot section; and the uppermost 20 feet of casing sealed with at least a nominal two inches of cement grout. No other minimum seal is acceptable unless the water management district or delegated permitting authority approves it as giving the resource equivalent protection (62-532.500(3)(i)3).
• Bentonite sealing: SWFWMD allows bentonite slurry grout for sealing only in wells 5 inches or less in nominal outside diameter, with a formation packer or a 5-foot neat cement plug at the casing seat and the upper 10 feet in neat cement; the NSF, artesian-flow and water-quality limits in the plugging note below apply too (40D-3.517(2)(b)2 and 4). Other grouting methods or materials need the permitting authority's written approval, requested as 62-532.500(3)(i)7 directs.
• Notice: SWFWMD requires at least 24 hours' notice before a public supply well is grouted, an abandoned well is plugged, or a well is built under special grouting conditions, and a District representative may need to attend; Rules 40D-3.461 and 40D-3.531 set the size exceptions and the conditions for proceeding without one.
• Completion report: the contractor or individual permittee files the State of Florida Well Completion Report within 30 days after the work ends, or within 30 days after the permit expires if no well was finished. If drilling problems are encountered, the District requires a record of the construction before the completion report is filed; it may ask orally or in writing, and the contractor or individual permittee provides the record within 7 days of receipt of the District's request. The record gives the well depth, casing depth, amount of grout used, and a description of the geologic material and any drilling problems (40D-3.411(1)(c)-(d)).
• Plugging: unless it can be repaired, an abandoned or incomplete well is filled from bottom to top with grout after obstructions are cleared, under a District permit issued beforehand. A licensed contractor does it, except for wells exempt under 40D-3.051(1) and wells permitted to an owner under the 2-inch exemption. Clean aggregate may bridge cavernous or lost-circulation zones only with prior District approval, where measurements show grout loss and the hole does not connect aquifers of differing water quality. Bentonite may not plug a dry well or go above the static water level; anything above that level is filled with neat cement, and the top 10 feet at least must be neat cement. Public supply wells and identified contamination areas may take only bentonite grout approved by the National Sanitation Foundation. If artesian flow occurs, a neat cement plug must stop it before bentonite is used. Bentonite is barred from contaminated wells whose contaminants will prevent an adequate seal and from wells whose water exceeds 10,000 milligrams per liter total dissolved solids (40D-3.531, 40D-3.517(2)(b)3-4).
• Testing: Florida DOH strongly recommends a bacteria and nitrate test of a private well at least annually and says most homeowners should test for lead every three years. DOH-Hernando's Spring Hill Environmental office takes private well samples for bacteriological testing Tuesday through Thursday, 7:30 to 11 a.m.; collect them the morning you submit them, in sterilized bags from that office.

• Karst: the 1985 USGS report describes numerous sinkholes formed as limestone and dolomite dissolve, which can give water a direct path from land surface to the freshwater aquifer, and lists the potential for poor-quality water to enter the aquifer that way among the county's water concerns.
• Brooksville Ridge: the report says the 100-foot contour generally marks this northwest-trending ridge. A mostly clay unit, including the Hawthorn and Alachua Formations, overlies the limestone in most of the county, is zero to 100 feet thick and is generally thickest beneath the ridge. On some ridge hills, clay of very low permeability holds a perched water table above the Floridan.
• Water quality (1985): generally good, except near the coast, where chloride was high because of the Gulf of Mexico. A few wells yielded objectionable iron and hydrogen sulfide, which was detected in several wells near the Withlacoochee River. The 54 wells sampled for the study ranged from 33 to 757 feet deep.
• Weeki Wachee: SWFWMD calls the river a first-magnitude spring system originating in Hernando County, whose springshed, the area feeding it groundwater, measures roughly 240 square miles and takes in a significant land area in northern Pasco and southwest Hernando counties, and says nitrate concentrations at many springs in the system are higher than historical concentrations.
• Arsenic: DOH-Hernando's Well Surveillance Program page says Spring Lake area residents may be eligible for free well sampling, and that owners whose drinking water wells test above the public health level of concern will have the opportunity for remediation at no cost.

Spring Hill · Brooksville · Hernando Beach · Ridge Manor · Masaryktown · Weeki Wachee Gardens · Spring Lake · Nobleton · Istachatta