Well permits in Robeson County
Permitting for private wells is a county function, so it goes through Robeson County environmental health rather than the city or the state directly.
What needs a permit
- A new well. Nobody may construct a private drinking water well, or help construct one, without a construction permit from the local health department first. That applies to new domestic and irrigation wells alike.
- Abandoning an old well. Closing a well properly is a regulated job, not filling it in. An abandoned well left open is a direct pipe from the surface into the aquifer everyone nearby is drinking from.
What generally does not
Replacing a failed pump on an existing well is a repair. So is replacing a pressure tank. Those are the jobs most people on this site are actually calling about, and they do not need a construction permit.
The construction standards
New wells in Robeson County are built to the North Carolina well construction rules, 15A NCAC 02C. The parts a homeowner can actually see and check:
- Casing extends at least 12 inches above the finished grade around the well. If yours is at or below ground level, water running across the yard runs into your well.
- A concrete pad or slab around the casing, to stop surface water getting in beside it.
- A sanitary seal or cap meeting state standards. A cracked or missing cap is one of the commonest and cheapest faults to find.
- Casing of steel, PVC or stainless. In bedrock wells, casing set at least 20 feet into competent rock.
Those first three are worth walking out and looking at after any flood, and before any water test for a closing. A well that fails a bacteria test often fails it at the top rather than at the bottom.
The forms, and where to get them
Robeson County Health Department publishes three that matter for wells:
- Application for Well Permit, which is the one you need before a new well is drilled.
- Application for Well Driller Registration, which is the contractor's paperwork rather than yours.
- Permit Inquiry Form for Real Estate Transactions, which is how you find out what has actually been permitted on a property you are buying. Worth knowing about before a closing, because a water test tells you the water is clean today and says nothing about whether the well was ever permitted.
Environmental Health
460 Country Club Rd, Lumberton, NC 28360
(910) 671-3200, or (910) 272-6560 for forms
Monday to Friday, 8:15 to 5:15
Fees are on their revised fee schedule rather than on this page. They change, and a number printed here would eventually be wrong in a way nobody would notice, so ring them. Other North Carolina counties publish well construction permit fees in the several hundred dollar range, which is a sense of scale and nothing more.
Related
- Well testing for a home purchase, where the lender sets the panel rather than the county.
- After a flood, where the casing height and cap suddenly matter a great deal.
- What a new well costs here, and what a complete price should include.
Sources: North Carolina well construction rules 15A NCAC 02C; NC DEQ and NCDHHS private well permitting guidance. Permitting is administered county by county, so confirm specifics with Robeson County environmental health.