Well Driller Program And SearchWell MAHB Certification Program

1. 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

2. Well Driller Certification Program MassDEP 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)

3. Well Driller Certification Program 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

4. Well Driller Certification Program MassDEP Compliance and Enforcement • Under old DCR Regulations (313 CMR 3.00) • $300/Violation • Under MassDEP Regulations • Currently in effect with 310 CMR 46.00 • Subject to MassDEP C & E Schedule • Could be Up to $10,000

5. Well Driller Program Can assist you… MassDEP • 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

6. Well Driller Certification Program MassDEP 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.

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

13. Well Driller Program SearchWell MassDEP 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).

25. Well Driller Certification Program MassDEP 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

30. Well Driller Program MassDEP • 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.

31. Well Driller Certification Program MassDEP 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.

32. Well Driller Registration Program MassDEP Contact information: • Steve Hallem – 617.292.5681 • steve.hallem@state.ma.us • Paul Blain – 617.292.5948 • paul.blain@state.ma.us

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