What a Missouri Well Driller Permit Means for Your Well

Published October 2026. Based on Missouri DNR guidance on well installation and permitting.

Missouri regulates who can drill wells and set pumps for pay. Knowing what the permit covers, and what it does not, tells you what paperwork your well should come with. We stick here to what DNR publishes and what you can check for yourself.

Who Needs a Permit in Missouri

Under RSMo 256.600 to 256.640, drillers and pump installers who charge for their work must hold a permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, according to the DNR well installation FAQ. A landowner who drills a well on their own property is exempt from the permit but must still meet the rest of the rules, including construction and plugging standards. In practice, anyone paid to drill, deepen or set a pump in your well should be able to give you a DNR permit number.

What It Takes to Get a Permit

DNR's pump installation contractor permitting page describes a non-restricted permit that requires a two-year apprenticeship and closed-book tests. For a pump installation permit, the apprenticeship includes 25 domestic pump installations, and drilling permits carry their own count of well installations. DNR also issues restricted permits, which are earned by passing an open-book test. A permit does not set prices or replace a written quote.

The Well Record and the Processing Fee

Wells drilled in Missouri after July 31, 1987 are reported to DNR, and the owner pays a processing fee on each new well. That report becomes the well's record: location, depth, casing, yield, water level and the rock layers drilled through. Keep a copy, because buyers, inspectors and anyone who services the pump later will want it.

DNR keeps these records in its Wellhead Information Management System, known as WIMS, and offers an online well search. The same records are behind the depth figures for Greene, Christian and Webster counties on our pages.

Older Wells, Plugging and Reconstruction

Wells drilled before 1987 are exempt from most of these rules, with two exceptions: plugging an unused well and major reconstruction of an old one. If your property has an old well that will be abandoned when a new one goes in, it should be plugged and recorded, and we can do that as part of the job. The same rules apply when an older well is deepened or rebuilt through well rehabilitation.

Which Wells the Rules Cover

Missouri's construction, reconstruction and plugging standards reach beyond household wells. DNR's well installation FAQ says they apply to domestic, multi-family, high-yield, monitoring and heat pump (geothermal) wells, so a geothermal well for heating and cooling is built under the same rules as a drinking water well.

The rules also set minimum distances between a well and possible sources of contamination, such as septic tanks, drain fields, lagoons and unplugged wells. That is one reason the spot chosen for a new well matters as much as its depth.

Around Springfield the casing rules are stricter. Greene County and parts of Christian County sit in DNR's Drilling Area 9, where casing has to reach at least 10 feet below the Ozark Confining Unit, the layer that separates the shallow aquifer from the deep one. That keeps the open hole of a new well below the shallow, karst-exposed layer, and it is a big part of why casing can be one of the largest items on a quote here.

How to Look Up a Permit

1. Get the name and number. A permit is issued to a person or company, so note both.
2. Check it with DNR. Permit status is kept in DNR's WIMS system, and DNR's well installation program can confirm whether a permit is current.
3. Match the permit to the job. Drilling a well and installing a pump are permitted separately, so the permit should fit the work being done.

What We Ask on the First Call

Most of the planning for a new well starts on the phone. These are the questions we ask so the quote fits your property:

• Where the house, the septic system and any old well sit on the lot, since state rules set minimum distances between a well and those features.
• Whether there is a DNR well record or a past water test for an existing well.
• How many people live in the home, and whether the well also serves livestock or a garden.
• Whether a truck can reach the well site on firm, fairly level ground.
• Whether the water has changed lately in pressure, color, taste or smell.

Pump Work Has Its Own Permit

Many jobs never involve a drill rig: a failed pump, a new pressure tank or a wiring fault at the well. Pump installation is covered by its own DNR permit, separate from drilling. See well pump replacement for how we handle that work.

If You Drill Your Own Well

The landowner exemption lets you drill on your own property without a permit. It does not exempt the well from Missouri's construction and plugging standards, and the groundwater under your land is shared with your neighbors' wells. Before you start, read the DNR well installation FAQ and ask DNR what records it expects from you.

What Your Paperwork Folder Should Hold

• The signed written quote, with depth, casing and pump lines.
• A copy of the well record filed with DNR.
• The pump's model, horsepower and setting depth, and the tank's size.
• The first water test result after the well was disinfected.
• Receipts for the pump, the tank and any later repairs.

Kept together, those papers answer most questions a buyer, an inspector or a future service call will raise.

What the Permit Does Not Tell You

A permit shows someone is allowed to do the work in Missouri. It does not tell you how footage past the expected depth is priced or what happens if a hole comes up dry. Those answers belong in the written quote, and the 2026 cost guide walks through each line.