Can I Drill My Own Well in Arizona? Permits, Exemptions, AMAs

You can drill your own well in Arizona on land you own, but only if you first obtain a single well license from the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR), file a Notice of Intention to Drill, and follow the state’s construction standards. Most homeowners hire a licensed contractor instead, and if your property sits inside one of Arizona’s five Active Management Areas, additional restrictions apply that can rule out a new well entirely.

The Single Well License for Property Owners

Every well drilled or modified in Arizona must be constructed under the direct, personal supervision of a licensed well driller.¹ The commercial driller’s license is what contractors carry. If you want to do the work yourself on your own land and the well qualifies as exempt, ADWR issues a separate single well license for that purpose. You have to hold it before you break ground.

Hiring an already-licensed contractor is the more common route, and for good reason: the construction rules are technical, the paperwork is unforgiving, and mistakes can require remedial work at your expense. But the option to drill your own exempt well legally exists.

Filing a Notice of Intention to Drill

No well may be drilled or deepened anywhere in Arizona without first filing a Notice of Intention to Drill (NOI) with ADWR.² This applies whether you’re inside or outside an Active Management Area, and whether the well is exempt or not. The NOI asks for the proposed location, depth, intended use, and the licensed driller who will do the work (yourself, if you hold a single well license).

Once ADWR has a complete NOI and the fee, it has fifteen days to review the application and issue a drilling card authorizing the work. If information is missing, or if the proposed well could pull contaminated groundwater from a remediation site toward another well, ADWR will deny the card and send a written explanation.² You cannot start drilling until the card is in hand. The drilling authority is valid for one year; after that, you file a new NOI.³

Filing Fees

The standard NOI filing fee is $150. A reduced $100 fee applies only if all three of these are true: the well will not be inside an Active Management Area or Irrigation Non-Expansion Area, it will be used solely for domestic purposes, and its pump capacity will be 35 gallons per minute or less.² Miss any one of those conditions and you pay the full $150.

Does Your Well Qualify as Exempt?

Arizona sorts production wells into two categories by pump capacity. An exempt well has a pump rated at 35 gallons per minute (GPM) or less and is used for non-irrigation purposes such as household supply, stock watering, or small commercial operations. A non-exempt well has a pump capacity above 35 GPM.³

The word “exempt” is a little misleading. These wells are exempt from many groundwater management requirements — owners don’t have to meter or report their water use, and the wells fall outside most public water system health rules. They are not exempt from the NOI, from construction standards, or from the location-based restrictions inside Active Management Areas.⁴ For a rural or semi-rural homeowner, an exempt well is the standard way to get water, and it’s also the only kind of well most private owners can drill themselves.

Extra Rules Inside Active Management Areas

Arizona has five Active Management Areas (AMAs) where groundwater stress is most severe: Phoenix, Tucson, Prescott, Pinal, and Santa Cruz.⁵ If your property sits inside one, additional rules layer on top of the standard drilling requirements. Check the AMA map before you plan anything else.

One Exempt Well Per Location

Only one exempt well may serve the same non-irrigation use at a single location within an AMA. A second exempt well for the same purpose is allowed only if ADWR’s director finds that every one of the following is satisfied:

The first well cannot consistently produce more than three gallons per minute, even with a 35-GPM-rated pump.
Both wells sit on the same parcel, the parcel is at least one acre, all water from both wells is used on that parcel, and no other exempt wells exist on it.
Combined withdrawals from both wells will not exceed five acre-feet per year.
If the second well is drilled after January 1, 2000, the county health authority has physically inspected the site and approved the location in writing.
Using two wells for the same purpose at that location is not contrary to public health and welfare.

All five must be met. Inside an AMA, exempt wells drilled after April 28, 1983, for commercial or industrial purposes are also capped at ten acre-feet per year. Domestic use and stock watering are not subject to that cap, though the 35-GPM pump ceiling still limits you in practice.⁶

The 100-Foot Rule Near Municipal Water

Since January 1, 2006, drilling an exempt well is prohibited on any parcel where any part of the land sits within 100 feet of the operating water distribution system of a municipal provider that holds an assured water supply designation inside an AMA.⁷ Distance is measured off a digitized service area map the provider files with ADWR, not off a survey you commission. On the growing edges of metro areas where municipal pipes have recently arrived, this catches more landowners than expected.

You can request an exemption from the 100-foot rule under any one of four conditions:

You submitted a written request for water service to the municipal provider, and the provider did not send written verification that service is available within 30 calendar days.
The total capital cost and fees to connect to the municipal system are higher than the total cost of drilling and fully equipping an exempt well.
You need an easement across another person’s land to reach the distribution system, you sent that landowner a certified-mail request with return receipt, and either received no response within 30 days or were denied.
None of the above apply, but the municipal provider gives written verification that you will not receive or request water service while the exempt well is operational. This exemption is revoked the moment you, or any future owner, connects to the municipal system.

The exemption request goes to ADWR on a prescribed form.⁸ The fourth pathway is worth thinking through: forfeiting municipal service is permanent for the life of the well, and it follows the property to any future buyer.

Well Construction Standards

ADWR sets the construction rules and they apply to every new well, exempt or not:

Only steel or thermoplastic casing is allowed unless ADWR grants a variance. Casing that has been exposed to hazardous materials such as asbestos is prohibited.
The casing must extend at least one foot above ground level.
A minimum 20-foot surface seal of steel casing and cement grout must be placed in one continuous application from the bottom of the sealed zone to the surface. The minimum annular space between the casing and the borehole for grout placement is one and a half inches.
Wells with casing four inches or larger in diameter need a watertight access port at least half an inch in diameter so the water level can be measured at any time.

Hand-dug wells have separate requirements, including a minimum six-inch-thick cement grout curbing extending from one foot above ground down to the water level. Horizontal wells need a surface seal extending at least ten feet into the land surface.⁹ Failing to meet these standards can lead ADWR to require remedial measures at the owner’s expense.¹⁰

Reports After the Well Is Drilled

The drilling card gets you started. Two reports close out the job.

Within 30 days of finishing the drilling, the well driller (you, if you’re using a single well license) files a well driller report with ADWR. It includes the drilling log, casing details, and information about the geology encountered. Within 30 days of installing pumping equipment, the well owner files a separate completion report covering the type of equipment installed, the tested pumping capacity measured after at least four continuous hours of operation, the drawdown in feet, and the static groundwater level measured before the pump test.¹¹

What About an Old Well Already on the Property?

If you bought land with an existing well, the drilling rules aren’t your first concern; registration and, potentially, abandonment are. Wells that existed before the Groundwater Management Act were required to be registered by June 12, 1982, with a form covering location, depth, casing type, maximum pumping capacity, and where the water is used.¹² If the well you inherited was never registered, ADWR treats that as a compliance issue and enforcement is possible.¹³

Any well no longer in use has to be properly abandoned under rules ADWR’s director adopts.¹⁰ Leaving an old well open is both an environmental hazard and a code violation, since an unsealed borehole gives surface contaminants a direct path to the aquifer.

Testing Your Water

One thing no agency does for you: check that the water is safe. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act does not regulate private domestic wells, and most state laws don’t either.¹⁴ The exempt well owner is on the hook for water quality.

The EPA recommends that private well owners test at least once a year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids, and pH. Test more often if small children, elderly adults, or pregnant women live in the household. Test immediately after flooding, nearby construction or industrial activity, any repair to the well system, or any noticeable change in water color, taste, or odor.¹⁵ A comprehensive certified lab analysis typically runs between $75 and $600 depending on what you screen for.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 45-595 – Well Construction Requirements; Licensing of Well Drillers
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 45-596 – Notice of Intention to Drill; Fee
3
Arizona Department of Water Resources. Well Drilling in Arizona
4
Arizona Department of Water Resources. Issue Brief: Exempt Wells
5
Arizona Department of Water Resources. Active Management Areas 101
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 45-454 – Exemption of Small Non-irrigation Wells; Definitions
7
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 45-454 – Exemption of Small Non-irrigation Wells; Definitions
8
Arizona Department of Water Resources. Certification to the Notice of Intention to Drill an Exempt Well Within an Active Management Area
9
Legal Information Institute. Arizona Administrative Code R12-15-811 – Minimum Well Construction
10
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 45-594 – Well Construction Standards; Remedial Measures
11
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 45-600 – Filing of Report by Driller; Filing of Completion Report
12
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 45-593 – Registration of Existing Wells; Permanent Record of All Wells
13
Arizona Department of Water Resources. Frequently Asked Questions
14
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Private Drinking Water Wells
15
US EPA. Protect Your Home’s Water