General News

Maintaining a well on a rural property

October 3, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Living in a rural area means you most likely obtain your water from a well on your property.

If you have a well on your property, you are responsible for it and must follow specific rules for maintaining it and, if necessary, abandoning a well to protect the safety of your water and the groundwater resource.

If you are considering constructing a new well on your property or need to upgrade your well, there are rules that the person constructing the well must follow to help protect the water supply.

There are minimum requirements for licensing individuals and companies who construct wells, as well as for homeowners when maintaining a well, abandoning a well, and reporting well activities.

These requirements and rules cover all wells, including private, residential and domestic wells; agricultural, commercial and industrial wells; municipal, communal and public wells; test holes and dewatering wells.

Most people do not have the expertise to build or maintain a well and will need to hire an expert to do it.

There are serious dangers when working on wells, such as falling, exposure to explosive gases, and the risk of electrocution. Improper construction is also a water contamination risk. For these reasons, when you are building, repairing, modifying or abandoning a well, you should hire a licensed well contractor.

A well contractor must be licensed and use licensed well technicians who have the proper class of license for the work that is being done.

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, operates a public Wells Help Desk to ensure that information is available to the public. The Wells Help Desk also receives and forwards well complaints to the appropriate ministry office, answers general questions on wells, and assists well owners in locating their well records.

When choosing a location for a new well, the person constructing the well must ensure it is a minimum distance from any nearby sewage systems and other existing sources of contaminants. It must be at a higher elevation than the immediate surrounding area and be accessible for treatment, cleaning, repair, testing, inspection, and visual examination.

It must also be kept a minimum distance away from all property lines because you can’t control what happens on adjacent properties.

There is a full list of rules that must be followed during construction of a new well.

Once constructed, a well owner must test the quality of the water regularly and look for changes in the water’s appearance. You should keep surface water and foreign materials from entering the well by securing the well cap in place and checking regularly for signs of rust and wear, cracks, holes, or gaps in the well’s structure.

There are times when a well should be abandoned.

An abandoned well must be plugged and sealed.


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