Well Pump Replacement in Marion County, IN

• Requests are accepted from all nine townships the Census Bureau lists in Marion County (Center, Decatur, Franklin, Lawrence, Perry, Pike, Warren, Washington and Wayne) and from the places it lists there: the consolidated city of Indianapolis, the cities of Beech Grove, Lawrence and Southport, and the towns of Speedway and Cumberland (Cumberland also extends into Hancock County).
• Chapter 18-102: if the Health Officer determines that water from a private well used for drinking, food preparation, washing or other direct human contact presents a chemical, biological or radiological risk to the people it serves, then whenever a public water main becomes available within 100 feet of any property line of the residential or business property the well serves, the owner must connect to the main as soon as practicable, abandon the well under 312 IAC 13-10-2 as soon as practicable and report the abandonment to the Health Officer within two business days. The Health Officer may approve industrial use of such a well on proof that the use will not create a hazard to human health.
• Before beginning the abandonment of any water well not serving a municipality or a public utility, a licensed water well driller must notify the Health Officer and receive authorization (18-201). Plugging methods are set by 312 IAC 13-10-2; ask MCPHD and the contractor which applies.

• Submersible pump replacement under a Chapter 18 pump permit
• Jet pump replacement, or a pump pulled for service and reinstalled (both are permit types on MCPHD's pump application)
• Installing a pitless adapter after the well seal is broken
• Adding the sampling faucet Chapter 18-304 requires on pressure systems
• Well disinfection after the seal is opened, ahead of MCPHD's water sample
• Arsenic treatment after a test result
• Well abandonment by a licensed driller when a property connects to a public main

• Permit fees. Chapter 18-202 sets a $50 pump permit and inspection fee, plus a $25 late fee for pump permit applications that are incomplete or received after five business days following the commencement of the well installation; 18-201 sets the same amounts for well permits. Both sections carry Gen. Ord. 5-2023, effective July 1, 2023.
• Required hardware. When the well seal is broken, 18-204 requires a pitless adapter installed under 312 IAC 13-4-3(d), which must keep contaminants from entering through the casing openings it attaches to and be consistent with the Water Systems Council Listing of Products for PAS-97(04). Submersible pumps need one check valve on the discharge line above the pump and inside the casing (18-302). A pressure system needs a sampling faucet with a smooth, turned-down nozzle on the discharge side of, and as close as possible to, the pump; a hose bib may not be used (18-304).
• Drawdown floor. 312 IAC 13-4-3.5 sets minimum available drawdown, meaning the gap between static water level and pump setting (13-1-3.2): 20 feet where the well is finished in an unconsolidated aquifer and 50 feet where it is finished in bedrock, unless DNR approves otherwise. That drawdown rule excludes monitoring and dewatering wells.
• Treatment. MCPHD's February 2014 private well info sheet calls county groundwater very hard (over 180 parts per million calcium carbonate) and naturally high in iron, says manganese is commonly found above the recommended 50 ppb, and says arsenic is commonly elevated in parts of the county.
• Method: the pump prices here are NGWA's national survey figures, and the $50 and $25 amounts come from Chapter 18 itself. No Marion County price survey, labor rate or depth adjustment has been applied to them.

• Notice first. Before installing any pump, uncovering a buried upper terminal to a well or breaking the sanitary seal of a private water supply built under Chapter 18, a licensed pump installer must notify the Health Officer by electronic mail or any other method the department accepts, and receive authorization to proceed. The notice includes a valid address, the location of the installation and any other information the department requires (18-202(a)).
• Permit after. The installer must obtain a pump permit signed by the Health Officer within five business days after installing the pump, uncovering the terminal or breaking the seal, submitting a completed application on a department-approved form with the $50 fee (18-202(a)). MCPHD's application instructions (revised January 12, 2022) also say five business days, but its Private Well Program page still says two, so confirm the deadline with MCPHD. A permit is void if the installation is not completed in one year (18-203).
• After the seal of an existing well is broken, the well must be disinfected under 312 IAC 13-9-1, which calls for at least 100 parts per million of chlorine; a well-pit terminal that is not properly drained to the ground surface in the immediate area, or is subject to flooding, counts as buried (18-204). Water from that well may not be used for human consumption until the well has been inspected and samples taken, and both have been approved by the Health Officer, who collects the samples for laboratory analysis of bacteriological quality before approving the supply (18-205).
• Chapter 18 requires compliance with 312 IAC 12 and 13 as well (18-101) and does not apply to wells used solely to monitor groundwater quality or quantity or for a geothermal heating and cooling system (18-209).
• State license. Subject to the exemptions below, Indiana requires a DNR license for anybody acting as a well driller or pump installer (IC 25-39-3-1); the pump-installer definition in IC 25-39-2-15.5 reaches every person installing or repairing water well pumps. The licensee installing a pump must carry the license and present it to a DNR representative on request; each license expires December 31 of the year issued. The fee with a license application is $100 for a calendar year (312 IAC 13-2-2(a)).
• Exemptions. Four exemptions in IC 25-39-1.5-3 switch off chapters 3 and 4 of IC 25-39: (1) a well for personal use measuring at most 1 1/4 inches in inside diameter and at most 24 feet in depth; (2) wells inside those same limits installed by a DNR-registered plumber licensed under IC 25-28.5; (3) installing or fixing a water well pump or other pumping equipment for personal use; (4) a worker directed and personally supervised by someone who holds a license. 312 IAC 13-1-19.3 treats use as personal when the well or pumping equipment used for water supply is located on property the person owns or has in their possession, or, in the case of a public water supply utility, when one of its permanent employees possesses it. Chapter 18's notice and permit sections name the licensed installer, so an owner planning their own pump work should ask MCPHD how the chapter applies.

• Indiana DNR's May 2011 Marion County aquifer reports say approximately 81 percent of all wells in the county are completed in unconsolidated deposits and approximately 19 percent in bedrock. The unconsolidated deposits typically range from bedrock exposure along the White River in the north-central county to about 305 feet thick in the northeast.
• The White River and Tributaries Outwash Aquifer System lies along the White River in the central county and three tributaries entering from the northwest and northeast. DNR reports wells completed at 25 to 277 feet, domestic yields typically up to 50 gpm, and high susceptibility to surface contamination where sand and gravel deposits are close to the surface and have little or no clay (moderate where relatively thick clay overlies them).
• In bedrock, the Silurian and Devonian Carbonates Aquifer System (limestone and dolomite) is present in the central and eastern county, with typical domestic yields of 10 gpm or greater. In the New Albany Shale, which subcrops in a northwest-to-southeast trend, domestic yields are typically under 5 gpm and many dry holes have been reported.
• MCPHD's testing brochure (WQ-GWQ00419) says coliform bacteria is very common, with about 40% of wells sampled testing positive for bacteria, and that arsenic is naturally occurring, comes from shale in the bedrock and is elevated or at unsafe levels in about 18% of samples.
• MCPHD says approximately 30% of Marion County's drinking water comes from groundwater supplies, the majority from surface water, and it inspects regulated businesses in the county's seven Wellfield Protection Areas.

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