Vermont
Well completion reports
Well drillers in Vermont must submit well reports to the state within 90 days of completing, deepening, hydrofracturing or abandoning a well. The Drinking Water and Groundwater Protection Division of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) maintains a database of wells drilled in Vermont, including information on location, construction and well logs, and the public can search it.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name well records among its standard record sources. They still matter. DEC's Spill Program names drinking water wells among the sensitive receptors a spill may threaten, and DEC says timely well reports are essential because the data are used, among other things, for characterizing groundwater conditions and flow, understanding the bedrock and the unconsolidated materials over it, and effectively remediating contaminated sites.
Three details shape what a well report holds.
- There is a report for each kind of work. DEC's report forms include a Well Completion Report for a new well, a Well Deepening and Hydrofracturing Report for later work on an existing well and a Well Closure Report for the closure or abandonment of a well; a fourth, Well Improvements, documents changes to an existing well record.
- A report gives a location. Reports must include accurate GPS coordinates and all applicable well construction and well information. DEC says all well reports must be submitted online and paper well reports are no longer accepted.
- Completion is the drilling, not the pump. DEC says a well is complete when the drill rig has finished drilling, deepening or hydrofracturing, not when a pump is installed, because the state has no jurisdiction over pump installation.
DEC's Well Driller Reporting page says well driller licensing has been transferred to the Office of Professional Regulation; the division's main page still lists well drillers among those it certifies or licenses. This handbook does not read that office's pages.
Where to look a site up
- DEC's Well Driller Reporting page links the Well Completion Reports Searchable Database. The same page links a Well Locator Map and the Natural Resource Atlas.
- DEC's home page lists the same database under Well Information, to find well depths and other information.
Getting the file
DEC's pages link, in their footer, Request public information and Department of Environmental Conservation Records Liaisons, both on the Agency of Natural Resources' public records page, which this handbook did not read. The pages read give no route of their own for a well report that is not in the database.
Sources
Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: