Well Driller Program And SearchWell MAHB Certification Program Marlboro Holiday Inn, Marlboro, MA November 2, 2013 By Steve Hallem Well Driller Program MassDEP – Bureau of Resource Protection, Drinking Water Program

Well Driller Certification Program Program Consists of :  Certification of Well Drillers/Registration of Drill Rigs  Approximately 360 Well Drillers  Approximately 450 rigs  Updating of the Well Completion Report Database w/Data From Recently Drilled Wells  Respond to Requests for Well Completion Data  From BOH/Home Owners/Buyers/Realtors  Other Drillers  Engineers/Consultant  Office of the State Geologist  Processing of Backlogged Well Completion Reports  Well Completion Cards submitted to DCR to be entered into database (90,000 Now 20,000) MassDEP

 Well Drillers Must:  Be certified in Massachusetts to drill a well  Must use a drill rig with a current MA sticker  Must submit a Well Completion Report (WCR) within 30 days of completing a well  Must submit a WCR for any well (private potable, irrigation, geothermal, or monitoring well) left in the ground for 48 hours or longer MassDEP Well Driller Certification Program

Compliance and Enforcement  Under old DCR Regulations (313 CMR 3.00)  $300/Violation  Under MassDEP Regulations  Currently in effect with 310 CMR  Subject to MassDEP C & E Schedule  Could be Up to $10,000 MassDEP

Well Driller Program Can assist you…  Be a resource for types of wells and general drilling practices  Provide a list of certified drillers  Provide the SeachWell database tool for wells in your town  If you don’t see it in SearchWell, give us a call and we will look through the paper files MassDEP

Well Driller Certification Program Database  Well Drillers are submitting about 90% of WCR on-line. Data goes into SearchWell within 15 minutes.  Some drillers still submit paper forms which staff enter.  Old forms from DCR are being entered by staff. MassDEP

Well Driller Certification Program  Database Currently contains 130,000 wells  30,000 Well Completion Reports Backlogged  Going Back to 1970s  Poor Locational Information MassDEP

Well Driller Program SearchWell What is it:  Its primary function is for users to view our well data  It can be viewed  Saved in an Excel spreadsheet  Printed as a simple well report  You can view well locations on a map, IF THE WELL HAS LOCATION DATA ( LAT / LON ). MassDEP

Well Driller Certification Program Geologic Mapping Layers*  Surficial Geology – in progress by USGS  Bedrock Geology – Zen unless mapped by Office of State Geologist * Data provided in part by Well Driller Program MassDEP

Well Driller Program  Well locations:  Very accurate if location collected by the driller using GPS  Some what accurate if lot number is known  Less accurate if location is from an “address match”.  All are good for general positions but not accurate enough for set back determinations. MassDEP

Well Driller Certification Program Can use your help…  Let us know if a driller is trying to take out a well permit and is not certified.  Only allow certified drillers to obtain a well permit.  Keep copies of the well permits on hand and match it with a copy of the WCR (which the drill should mail to you). Let us know if you have a well permit without a WCR to go with it.  Let us know of any problems with wells someone drills. MassDEP

Well Driller Registration Program Contact information: Steve Hallem – Paul Blain – MassDEP

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