Green form GF
Well construction permit
The application that starts every package. Describes the proposed well, its location and its intended use.
Available now
Maryland Department of the Environment Water Supply Program
An official permitting service of the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Wells & Septics Permitting Portal
Apply for well construction permits, file completion and abandonment reports, and follow every application through to approval. One portal for licensed well drillers, property owners, and the Local Approving Authority in each of Maryland's 24 jurisdictions.
24
Maryland jurisdictions
9
Form types supported
13
Items one package can hold
Two ways in
Sign in to the portal
How you sign in depends on who you are. Maryland state staff use their state account; drillers, homeowners and contractors use a portal password.
Which one is mine?
- Maryland state account MDE employees whose work email address ends in @maryland.gov — for example [email protected]. This is the only address the state sign-in accepts today.
- Portal password Licensed well drillers, property owners and contractors — and county staff whose work address is not a @maryland.gov one, until their jurisdiction's account is added.
- Addresses with a + in them An address written name+[email protected] is not a state account and cannot use the state sign-in. Use a portal password.
Signing in with a state account does not by itself give you review or administration access — an administrator assigns that separately.
MDE employees
Sign in with your Maryland state account
For MDE employees. Use the same Maryland state account you sign in to state email with.
- Only a work address ending in @maryland.gov can use this route.
- An address with a + in it — name+[email protected] — is not a state account. Use the portal password lane.
- No separate portal password to remember.
- Review queues and administration appear once an administrator grants your role.
- A one-time code is emailed to finish signing in.
Signing in for the first time creates your portal account automatically. Review and administration features appear once an administrator assigns your role.
Drillers, homeowners and contractors
Sign in with a portal password
Register once with your individual name, then use that email address and password every time.
- Licensed drillers are matched against the Board's register automatically, so the driller role is granted without a request.
- Property owners see the applications filed on their address.
- A one-time code is emailed to finish signing in.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account — register with your individual name. Licensed well drillers will need their licence number to hand.
Not sure which applies to you? If your work email address ends in maryland.gov, use the state account. Everyone else registers here.
What you can file
Every form in one permit package
A permit package begins with the Green form and carries every later report for the same well, so the whole history stays together. Child forms are filed against the package, never on their own.
The four carbon-copy forms
Yellow form YF
Well completion report
Filed after drilling. Records the completed depth, casing, screens, lithology and yield test.
Available now
White form WF
Well abandonment report
Records how a well was sealed when it is taken out of service, including the sealing materials used.
Available now
Blue form BF
Unbuilt well record
Closes out a permit where no well was constructed, with the field record of the days worked.
Available now
Filed when the well or the site calls for it
Hydrofracture HF
Hydrofracture report
Required when a well is hydrofractured to improve its yield (COMAR 26.04.04.28). Filed against the well tag.
Available now
Potability PC
Certificate of potability
Required before a drinking-water well is put into service. Decided by the well's intended use, not by the paperwork.
Available now
Electric log EL
Geophysical / electric log
Filed when a borehole log was obtained. Optional, and part of the permanent record for the well once submitted.
Available now
Variance XR
Exception or variance request
Asks the Approving Authority to allow a departure from a COMAR construction or siting requirement, with the reason.
Available now
Setbacks SB
Setback measurement sheet
Records the measured distances from the well to every feature the county sets a minimum separation from.
Coming soon
"Available now" means the form can be started in this portal today. The others are accepted by the programme and are being built here; until then they are filed the way they always were. See the full list of forms and reports ›
How it works
What a permit package owes, and when
A permit application is one form. A permit package is up to thirteen. They are not all owed, and they are not all owed at once — each one becomes due, or becomes available, because of something earlier in the package. This is the order it happens in.
- Always required owed on every permit package.
- Required in some cases becomes owed because of something earlier in the package — what the site is, or what the completion report records.
- Optional filed by choice, and kept with the record.
- Licensed driller / Approving Authority whose job the item is. Every one is the licensed driller's except the fee, which the Approving Authority records.
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Apply, and clear the fee
A package begins with one Green form for one proposed well. Nothing else in the package can exist until that application is filed — and the review clock is released when the fee CLEARS, not when it is sent.
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GF Well construction permit application
The one form that creates the package. Everything else is filed against it.
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SB Setback measurement sheet
Filed with the application where the jurisdiction requires the measured separations to be recorded.
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XR Exception or variance request
Filed when the site cannot meet a COMAR requirement and a departure from it is being asked for.
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FEE Permit fee
Recorded by the Approving Authority. The review clock is released by clearance, not by submission.
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Before the rig is mobilised
The permit is issued by the Local Approving Authority for the jurisdiction, and one notice is owed before any equipment moves onto the site.
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ITD Intent to drill
Owed on every permit, at least 24 hours before the rig is mobilised — not 24 hours before drilling starts.
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When the work is finished
Every permit is closed out by one of two reports, and which one depends on whether a well was actually built. This is the form the rest of the package keys off.
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YF Well completion report
Owed within 45 days of completing the well — COMAR 26.04.04.29. Records depth, casing, screens, lithology and yield.
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BF Unbuilt well report
Filed instead, where no well was constructed, with the field record of the days worked. It closes the permit out.
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What the completion report brings with it
The completion report is what decides the rest of the package. Some of these become owed the moment it records something; the others may be filed if the work was done. None of them can be filed before it.
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HF Hydrofracture report
Required once the completion report records hydrofracturing — COMAR 26.04.04.28. Filed against the well tag.
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PC Certificate of potability
Required for a drinking-water well. Decided by the well's intended use, never by the paperwork.
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WF Well abandonment report
Required where a well is sealed, including one replaced by the new well — COMAR 26.04.04.34.
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YT Yield test log
Filed where a test was run and the detail is worth keeping separately. It is a choice, not an obligation.
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EL Geophysical / electric log
Filed where a borehole log was obtained, and kept as part of the permanent record for the well.
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If the permit changes hands
A permit can move to a different driller part way through. It is a filing in its own right, not an edit to the application.
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TR Permit transfer
Both drillers sign and the county approves. One signature is not a transfer — COMAR 26.04.04.08.
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Between each stage the Local Approving Authority for the jurisdiction reviews what has been filed, and you are notified at every change of status. Nothing in a package is ever filed on its own — it is always filed against the application that created the package.
What comes back out
Reports, records and documents
Everything filed for one well stays together and stays readable — by the driller who filed it, by the Approving Authority that decided it, and by the property owner it was filed for.
The permit package record
Every form filed for one well, with its status history and the date each one was received, on a single screen.
Printable permit packet
The application and its reports assembled into one document for the site file or for the property owner's records.
Supporting documents
Well logs, site plans, grout yield records, and the paperwork for a deviation or a variance, attached to the form they belong to.
Fee record and receipt
What was charged, what has cleared, and when — the same ledger the county clerk works from.
Who uses the portal
Find your way in
Licensed well drillers
File permit applications and every follow-up report. Your licence is checked against the Board's register when you register and again each time you submit, so your role is granted automatically.
Register with your licence ›Property owners
Follow the applications filed on your property and receive notification at each step. Records appear once the form naming your address has been filed by your driller.
Create an owner account ›County and MDE officials
Review and decide the applications for your jurisdiction. Access is granted by an administrator and scoped to the counties you are mapped to.
See how to sign in ›Need help with an application?
Read the frequently asked questions, or contact the Environmental Service Center for help with your account, a licence, or a form you are part way through.