Well Drilling in North Carolina, NC

• Wake County: the Groundwater Protection and Wells Section of the county's Onsite Water Protection Division enforces Wake's own well ordinances, including yearly county registration of well contractors; its construction regulations were last amended December 19, 2024.
• Johnston County: Johnston County Environmental Health sites, permits and inspects private wells under rules the county Board of Health amended and readopted on June 3, 2008, effective July 1, 2008, which also require well drillers to register with the county every year.
• Franklin County: the Census Bureau's 2020 North Carolina place file lists Louisburg, Franklinton, Youngsville and Bunn among the towns with Franklin County rows.
• Union County: Monroe city and the towns of Waxhaw, Indian Trail and Marshville have Union rows in that file. Part of Union, generally east of a road-defined line in 15A NCAC 02C .0117(7), is one of the deeper-casing areas described under local conditions.

• New private drinking water wells, built under a county construction permit and used only after the health department issues a certificate of completion
• Well repairs, which take a county repair permit unless the job is maintenance that neither breaks nor opens the well seal, or is confined to fixing or swapping a pump or tank (G.S. 87-97(b)(2), (c))
• Pump installs, followed by disinfection of the well (02C .0111(a)) and, within 72 hours, a pump information plate on the well (02C .0107(j)(3))
• Rehabilitating weak or fouled wells: hydrofracturing is Level B work, while biofouling rehabilitation, packers and liners are Level C work (15A NCAC 27 .0110)
• Sealing a well that is no longer needed, which starts with an abandonment permit from the county

• Calculator: our cost tool uses national figures only. Your depth is priced at a per-foot rate tied to the rock type selected, and a generic permit line plus pump and pressure tank allowances are added on top; its code credits the rates and allowances to Angi, HomeGuide and HomeAdvisor cost pages. The county pages link local fee information.
• Casing and grout footage are partly fixed by rule (02C .0107(d)-(f)): the general casing minimum is 20 feet below land surface, rising to 43 feet in the Rule .0117 areas and for wells built at reduced setbacks outside the Rule .0116 areas; it sits at least five feet into consolidated rock when the well draws from rock, and ends 12 inches or more above ground. Grout goes at least 20 feet down and deeper wherever contaminated, saline or other non-potable zones must be sealed off. Minimums are shallower in the coastal areas listed in Rule .0116(a), and elsewhere Rule .0116(b)-(c) permit shallower casing or water sources in limited cases (a Rule .0118 variance, or unconsolidated rock formations where adequate water is not available below 20 feet), each only under that paragraph's conditions.
• An old well on the lot: if the county's site visit finds an abandoned well, G.S. 87-97(d) makes closing it properly a condition of the construction permit.
• Hookup: under G.S. 87-97(b2), the well permit also authorizes a certified well contractor to run the pump wiring to the pressure switch and the water pipe from the well to the tank, including both in one ditch as deep as the greater of the two minimum cover requirements, which a certified well contractor covers when done. Other licensed trades may still do such work within their licenses.

• Permits: under G.S. 87-97(b) and 02C .0304(a), building or permanently abandoning a private drinking water well requires a permit from the local health department first, and so does a repair, except maintenance and pump or tank repair or replacement as noted above. The owner or agent applies to the health department for the county where the well is or will be, with the contents 02C .0303 lists.
• Decision (G.S. 87-97(d)-(f), 02C .0304(b)): the department evaluates the site in the field, and its permit carries a site plan showing contamination sources and the area suitable for the well, plus a reference to any known contamination release within 1,000 feet found in DEQ's published inventories and any known risk from it. Construction and repair applications get a permit or a denial within 30 days; an automatic permit results only from the department missing that deadline, and the department may then contest it under Chapter 150B. A compliant well may not be refused because of a local government policy that discourages or prohibits new wells. Each permit stays valid for five years, subject to revocation if a fact or circumstance behind it materially changes.
• On the job: a copy of whichever permit covers the work, whether construction, repair or abandonment, stays at the site throughout, and the contractor must satisfy every permit condition (02C .0306(b)). Some changes after the permit is issued, a relocated house or septic system among them, have to be reported to the health department before construction; 02C .0306(a) has the full list.
• Grout checks: the contractor schedules a grout inspection with the health department (02C .0305); that rule and G.S. 87-97(e2)-(e4) also let a contractor grout with no inspector present and self-certify, subject to notice, timing, holiday and variance conditions, so agree on the plan with the department first.
• Completion (G.S. 87-97(f1)-(g), 02C .0306(c)): once the well is disinfected and the GW-1 record is in, the department checks the casing grout for settling and the sealed wellhead, confirms the well matches the permit and issues a certificate of completion with an as-built drawing. No new well may go into service, and no well repaired under a permit may return to service, without that certificate.
• First water test (G.S. 87-97(h), (j)): once a new well has its certificate of completion, the health department has 30 days to test the water, either itself or by confirming a certified lab did, covering lead, arsenic, copper, iron, manganese, barium, cadmium, chromium, mercury, selenium, silver, magnesium, sodium, zinc and fluoride, plus nitrates, nitrites, pH and bacterial indicators. The owner receives the results, and so does any tenant leasing a home or facility the well supplied at sampling time, where practicable.
• Certification (G.S. 87-98.4): performing, managing or supervising well contractor activity requires state certification. Subsection (b) lists exempt persons and activities, each with its own conditions, and (c) lets the Commission exempt more by rule. One of them covers work on a well located on land owned or leased by the person doing it, though DHHS points out that such wells remain subject to every State and local construction standard.
• Levels (15A NCAC 27 .0110): Level D covers breaking a well seal, installing a pump or other equipment in a well, and disinfection; Level C adds grouting, abandonment, well development, packers, liners and extending casing above land surface, among other work; Level B adds hydrofracturing and every construction and drilling technique except sonic, air rotary and mud rotary; Level A covers all well contractor activities and is required for geothermal wells and their loops. A certified contractor of the right level must be present at all times during the work. The Commission that adopts these rules sits in the NC DHHS Division of Public Health (G.S. 87-99.1), and DHHS says only individuals, not companies, are certified.
• Records (02C .0114, .0307): the GW-1 form (new well) or GW-30 form (closure), certified by the person who built or sealed the well, is due at DEQ's Division of Water Resources no more than 30 days after the work, with a copy to the county health department when the well supplies water. Rule .0114 spells out the required contents, and a record handed to any other office or person does not satisfy the Division filing. DEQ lists online GW-1 submission as its preferred method. Repair records go to both offices within 30 days.
• Closing a well: 02C .0309 sets the notice, inspection and contractor-certification steps, and 02C .0113 sets the fill and seal methods for each type of well and who is responsible for the closure. If the local health department notifies an owner that a well is acting as a source or channel of contamination, 02C .0301(b)(3) gives 30 days from receipt of the notice to repair it or abandon it permanently.

• Setbacks: the distance table in 02C .0107(a)(2), which applies to contamination sources already there when drilling happens, asks for 50 feet between the well and a septic tank and drainfield (with its repair area) serving one single-family home, rising to 100 feet for a saprolite system; 100 feet to septic systems serving any other facility; 25 feet from the outline of a building, which takes in any attached garage, patio or deck requiring a building permit; and 50 feet to surface waters that recharge groundwater, such as ponds, lakes and reservoirs, against 25 feet to other surface waters, such as creeks and rivers. The table also covers landfills, storage tanks, animal barns, gravesites and other sources, with 50 feet for any source it does not name.
• Tight lots (02C .0107(a)(3)): a domestic well serving one single-family home may be sited at reduced separations when lot size or other fixed conditions preclude the table's distances; the septic-distance FAQ below gives the two minimum distances and the 43-foot casing and water-source conditions, which do not apply in the Rule .0116 areas.
• Coastal exception (02C .0116(a)): in the coastal areas the rule lists, among them part of Currituck County and the barrier island from the Virginia line to Ocracoke Inlet, wells may be cased to less than 20 feet where the best or only potable water lies 10 to 20 feet down.
• Deeper-casing areas (02C .0117): the rule describes zones in Anson, Cabarrus, Davidson, Montgomery, Randolph, Rowan and Union counties, plus Stanly County in full. A water supply well inside a zone or less than 400 feet from one takes 43 feet of casing or more and grout to 20 feet, and under Rule .0107(b)(2) its source must lie below 43 feet.
• Water quality: the DHHS testing FAQ says certain minerals or chemicals may be present depending on an area's geology and land use, and that many North Carolina wells have too much lead, arsenic, iron, manganese, low pH and harmful bacteria.
• Uranium: an NC DHHS fact sheet says groundwater uranium is generally found in the Raleigh, Carolina Slate, Charlotte and Milton belts, with the highest naturally occurring levels in the Raleigh Belt, and advises a certified lab uranium test every two years as part of the inorganic panel. Uranium is not on the G.S. 87-97(h) new-well list.

Franklin County · Johnston County · Union County · Wake County · Smithfield