What is an ADWR Notice of Intent to drill a well in Arizona?

An ADWR Notice of Intent to Drill, filed on form 55-40, is the application you must submit to the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) before you drill a new well, or deepen, replace, or modify an existing one. It registers the proposed well with the state and has to be approved before any drilling begins. The form is short, it carries a filing fee, and ADWR reviews it for completeness within 15 days. Once ADWR issues the drilling authority, a licensed well-drilling contractor must perform the work, and that authority is good for one year. For a normal Arizona home, the well is usually an exempt well, meaning a pump rated at 35 gallons per minute or less for household use.

Here is what the form is, the step-by-step process, the rules for an exempt domestic well, and why this matters before you build on a rural lot.

What the Notice of Intent to Drill is

The Notice of Intent to Drill is ADWR's required pre-drilling filing, and it is the legal trigger that lets a well be drilled at all. ADWR puts it plainly: "Prior to drilling a new well, or deepening or modifying an existing well, a Notice of Intent to Drill must be filed with ADWR." You cannot legally drill first and file later. The notice comes first, ADWR reviews it, and only then can the drill go in the ground.

The form, DWR 55-40, is titled the Notice of Intention to Drill, Deepen, Replace or Modify a Well. It collects the basics: who owns the land, where the well will go, how deep, the pump capacity, and what the water will be used for. ADWR uses that information to register the well and to track groundwater across the state. The notice must be signed and dated by the well owner.

This is a state registration step, separate from any city or county building permit and separate from your water-hauling or EPCOR decisions. It exists so Arizona knows where its wells are and how much they can pump. Skipping it is not an option: an unregistered well is an illegal well.

The step-by-step process

The process runs file, review, drill, and report, and ADWR controls the timing at each gate. Knowing the steps keeps your build schedule realistic, because the well cannot be drilled until the paperwork clears.

1. File form 55-40 with the fee. You submit the notice to ADWR with the required filing fee. ADWR advises filling out the form "with the assistance of the licensed well driller that will perform the work," because the driller knows the technical entries.
2. County health review, if it applies. If the well is for domestic use on a parcel of 5 acres or less, the county environmental health department or local health authority must review the notice first. This catches septic-to-well spacing and similar health issues before drilling.
3. ADWR completeness review. ADWR has 15 days after receiving the notice to perform an administrative completeness review and decide whether to accept or reject it. If it accepts, ADWR mails the drilling authority to the driller and the owner.
4. Drilling within the authorized year. The drilling authority is "valid for one year from the date ADWR received the NOI." A licensed driller does the work in that window. If a year passes without drilling, a new notice is required.
5. Driller files the completion report. After drilling, the licensed driller files a well completion report (a driller's log) with ADWR, closing out the record.

Plan for a few weeks of lead time. ADWR notes it normally processes the notice within about two weeks of receiving it from the county or applicant, but build in margin so the well does not hold up your slab.

The exempt well and the 35 gallons-per-minute rule

For a typical home, the well is an exempt well, which ADWR defines as a well with a pump rated at 35 gallons per minute or less used for domestic purposes. The rule comes from A.R.S. 45-454 and the definition in A.R.S. 45-402, and ADWR states it directly: an exempt well "is equipped to pump 35 gallons per minute or less" and serves "the supply, service and activities of households and private residences." A 35 gpm pump is plenty for a single household, so almost every rural home well in Arizona is exempt.

The exempt category matters for two reasons. First, it sets the kind of well you file for on the 55-40 form. Second, it affects the filing fee. Per ADWR's instructions, the fee is $150 in most cases, but it drops to $100 if the well is not inside an Active Management Area or Irrigation Non-Expansion Area, will be used solely for domestic purposes, and has a pump capacity of 35 gallons per minute or less. Most Rio Verde Foothills and rural Maricopa County wells meet that reduced-fee test.

An exempt well still has to be filed and registered the same way. Exempt means lighter regulation on how much it can pump, not a pass on the Notice of Intent. You still file form 55-40, still pay the fee, and still use a licensed driller. The exemption only changes the pumping limits and the reduced fee, never the duty to register the well before drilling.

Why this matters before you build

This filing matters because the well, its approval, and its yield all have to line up before you can count on water for the house. A well is never guaranteed in Arizona. One lot can hit good water at 300 feet while a neighbor drills far deeper for less, so the Notice of Intent is the start of a process whose outcome you do not fully know until the drill is down. File early, and check ADWR's well records for nearby parcels first, because the depth and yield next door is the best clue to your own.

Three practical points protect you. First, a licensed driller is required, so verify the contractor's license before they touch your lot. Second, the county health review for domestic wells on small parcels can affect where the well sits relative to the septic system, so the well, the septic, and the home all have to fit on the lot at once. Third, even a good exempt well often still feeds a storage tank, because a low-recovery well refills the tank slowly while the house draws from it, so size the tank into the plan. See our guide on how big a water storage tank you need for a hauled-water home in Arizona.

Get the Notice of Intent filed and the well sorted before plans are final, because the water source belongs on your site plan and the county wants to see it when you apply for a permit. For the full set of rural water options, including hauling and shared wells, see our guide on how to get water to a home in Rio Verde Foothills. Jematell Homes builds on rural Arizona lots and coordinates the well filing, the driller, and the storage tank so the water is settled before the slab is poured.

Building with Jematell Homes

We plan water and wastewater early so they never stall your permit. We would rather answer your questions before you build than after, so get in touch any time.

Sources

• Arizona Department of Water Resources: Well Drilling in Arizona
• ADWR: 55-40 Notice of Intention to Drill (form and instructions)
• A.R.S. 45-454 (Exemption of small non-irrigation wells; definitions)