What the well driller board in Illinois actually requires

Last updated 2026-08-19

Do you need a license for well drilling in Illinois?

Yes. You need a state license before you work as a water well contractor or a water well pump installation contractor in Illinois. The statute is the Water Well and Pump Installation Contractor's License Act, 225 ILCS 345. The Illinois Department of Public Health issues the card.^[1]

The Act does not whisper. Section 3 says no person shall engage in the occupation of a water well contractor or a water well pump installation contractor, or advertise or hold himself or herself out as one, unless licensed by the Department.^[1]

Read that advertise clause twice. A yard sign is enough to need a license.

The license is about the person and the company. It is not the permit for a single address. That permit comes from the local health department under the Water Well Construction Code, 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920.^[3]

Pump-only work still needs the pump installation contractor license. Well construction plus pump work needs both sides, which IDPH can put on one combined credential. Closed-loop geothermal construction is a different Illinois contractor track. A water well card does not automatically cover a closed-loop bore.^[3][5]

I would not copy owner-builder folklore from another state. 225 ILCS 345 is written around the occupation. If you think you are exempt, ask IDPH in writing and keep the email. Starting the bit first is how people become a case file.

If you already hold paper from the well driller board in Arizona or the well driller board in Arkansas, that is useful background. It is not an Illinois license.

What is the well driller board in Illinois?

People mean the Water Well and Pump Installation Contractors Licensing Board that advises the Illinois Department of Public Health. It is a licensing board attached to a department. It is not a separate walk-in agency that prints your card at a front desk.^[1][6]

You still send the application to IDPH. You still sit the Department's exam. You still take discipline from the Department. The board advises on the occupation and the license program. That shapes how the exam and the rules feel. It does not change who signs the license.

If you trained under a loud independent contractor board, Illinois will feel quiet. Quiet is not optional. The legal hook stays 225 ILCS 345 and 77 Ill. Adm. Code 915.^[1][4]

Confirm the current board name, any public meeting notice, and the live application packet on IDPH's private water pages before you drive to Springfield. Pages get reorganized. Call the Environmental Health private water unit if the PDF looks old.^[6]

Do not treat a trade association as the board. Associations are useful. They do not issue 225 ILCS 345 licenses.

Who issues the well driller license in Illinois?

The Illinois Department of Public Health issues the license. Environmental Health runs the private water program that already owns the well construction rules.^[6]

77 Ill. Adm. Code 915 is the Water Well and Pump Installation Contractor's License Code. Applications, examinations, expiration, and renewal live there.^[4]

77 Ill. Adm. Code 920 is how the well is built. 77 Ill. Adm. Code 925 is how the pump is installed. Those are the three Part numbers you should be able to say out loud.^[3][5]

Local health departments do not hand out the state contractor license. They permit the site and they inspect. Keep both phone numbers in the rig.

IDPH can refuse, suspend, or revoke a license under the Act. That is why your application answers should match your actual work history. Cute omissions age badly.^[1]

Paper	Who handles it	When you need it
IDPH water well contractor license	IDPH	Before you contract to construct water wells
IDPH pump installation contractor license	IDPH	Before you install pumps on water wells
Combined contractor license	IDPH	If you construct wells and install pumps
Local water well construction permit	Local health department	Before you start that hole
Water well construction report	You file with IDPH and local health	After the well is completed

What paper do you file before you drill in Illinois?

You file two kinds of paper before the bit turns. Your IDPH contractor license has to be current. The parcel needs a water well construction permit from the local health department. 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920 is the code local programs enforce.^[3][6]

Call the environmental health office that actually covers that parcel. A Kane County packet is not an Alexander County packet. Most local programs want an application, a site sketch with setbacks, and a fee set by local ordinance. I will not invent those county fees. Ask the county and screenshot the fee page.

Call 811 before you disturb soil. Illinois one-call is not a well permit. It is how you avoid cutting a marked line.

Community and non-community public water systems can drag in extra review from IDPH or the Illinois EPA. A house well is the common path. A well that serves a small business may not be a house well. Ask before you bid it like one.

Setbacks from septic tanks, property lines, and sources of contamination are not a handshake. They live in the construction code and in the local review. If the only spot the owner wants is on top of the septic curtain, you are not a magician. You are the person who has to say no.

Bring a plot a sanitarian can read without squinting. Missing distances are why permits sit on a desk while your rig sits on a trailer.

How much does a well driller license cost in Illinois?

Confirm the dollar amount with IDPH. Application, exam, and renewal fees sit on the current contractor licensing materials. Those numbers move. Printing last year's fee in this article would be a good way to bounce your check.^[4]

Plan for more than the state fee. Exam travel, study time, and any experience affidavits cost money. Continuing education, if 77 Ill. Adm. Code 915 currently requires it for your renewal cycle, is another line. Read the live Part 915 text for CE. Forum hour counts are often wrong.^[4]

County well permits are a second check. Some counties post an environmental health fee schedule. Use that schedule.

How much does well driller cost in Illinois if you mean hiring a crew? That is a bid, not a license fee. Depth, casing, grout, and the pump package drive it. There is no official statewide price list.

Anyone selling a guaranteed Illinois license is selling smoke. This site is an independent publisher, not a law firm and not a service company. IDPH decides. No article gets to promise a yes.

How long does well driller licensing take in Illinois?

There is no processing time I will treat as a promise. IDPH has to accept the application, seat you at an exam, score it, and issue the credential. Exam sittings are scheduled, not walk-in coffee lines. Miss the date and you wait. Confirm the current exam calendar with the Department.^[4]

Do not promise a landowner a Monday start while your application is still a PDF.

County permits can move faster than a first license, or they can sit on a bad site plan. Floodplain, contamination setbacks, and missing sketches are why permits stall.

On-site drilling time for a typical private well is often a few days of rig time, then pump work, chlorination, and sampling. Geology writes that schedule. The Illinois State Water Survey well records are how you see real depths near the job. A national magazine average is useless in thick drift or in shallow bedrock.^[9]

Renewals follow 77 Ill. Adm. Code 915. Put the expiration on a calendar. Working expired is unlicensed work with extra steps.^[4]

How much does it cost to drill a well in Illinois?

There is no official statewide price for a drilled private well that I trust. USGS reports how Illinois uses groundwater in Circular 1441. It does not tell you what to charge per foot in McHenry County.^[10]

Bids move with depth, borehole diameter, casing schedule, grout, pitless adapter, development time, pump and tank package, and mobilization. Drift wells and bedrock wells do not bid like twins.

If you are hiring a driller, get written bids from people who currently hold the IDPH license. Split mobilization, per-foot drilling, materials, grout, and the pump. A cheap per-foot line with grout listed as needed is how owners buy a well the county hates.

If you are the new contractor, your real first-year number is insurance, fuel, grout, bits, labor, and the weeks you are not turning to the right because paper is pending. That is a business budget, not an IDPH fee.

University of Illinois and ISWS education programs spend more time on water quality and well care than on bid sheets. That should tell you something. Price is local. Construction quality is statewide code.^[9]

What does the Illinois Water Well Construction Code require?

77 Ill. Adm. Code 920 is the Illinois Water Well Construction Code that local health departments use to permit and inspect private wells.^[3]

Location, casing, grouting, disinfection, abandoned well sealing, and reporting sit in that Part. If you grouted one way in another state, stop. Read the Illinois grout sections again. Approved materials and annular space are code, not a preference.

The Illinois Groundwater Protection Act, 415 ILCS 55, is the policy statute that treats groundwater as a resource the State means to protect. You will not run a job off that Act. You will run it off Part 920.^[8]

35 Ill. Adm. Code 620 holds Illinois groundwater quality standards. That is why the lab report looks the way it looks.^[11]

EPA is clear at the federal level. "EPA does not regulate private wells," says the agency's private wells page, so the construction police work stays with the State and the county.^[13] Federal silence is not permission to freestyle the annular seal.

Disinfect new wells. Sample them. ISWS private-well education is written so owners understand care and testing, and those owners will still call you when the first lab slip arrives. Know what you told them on install day.^[12]

Sealing abandoned wells is part of the same code family. An old casing left open is a direct pipe into the aquifer. Illinois treats that as a construction problem, not a folklore problem.^[3]

What reports do you file after an Illinois well is done?

File the water well construction report with IDPH and with the local health department after the well is completed. Illinois local programs commonly state that the report is due within 30 days. Confirm the deadline in the current text of 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920 and write it on the job folder.^[3][6]

The Illinois State Water Survey takes well records through the Illinois Water Inventory Program. Future drillers and future hydrogeologists use that file. Incomplete logs are how the next rig gets surprised.^[9]

Write grout like a grown-up. Depths, materials, volumes. If you want a field binder that keeps board rules next to grout logs, the $179 one-time Well Board + Grout-Log Kit from WellDrillerPath is for that habit. It does not replace IDPH or county forms, and it does not file anything for you.

Pump installation reports live on the 77 Ill. Adm. Code 925 side when that Part requires them.^[5]

Sealing reports for abandoned wells belong in the same discipline. If you pulled a pump and found a well the owner wants gone, do not invent a method. Open Part 920 and the local permit rules for sealing.^[3]

Keep copies in the truck and in the office. When a realtor calls three years later, you will want the log.

Does Illinois accept an out-of-state well driller license?

Illinois does not hand you a 225 ILCS 345 card because another state already likes you. Reciprocity, if any, is whatever IDPH will accept on the current application. Confirm it. Do not advertise in Illinois on a maybe.^[1][4]

Bring your out-of-state license, your exam history, and your well logs when you talk to the Department. Paper helps. Assumptions do not.

A credential from the well driller board in Alabama, the well driller board in California, or the well driller board in Colorado is evidence. Same if your home shop answers to the well driller board in Florida or the well driller board in Georgia. None of those boards write 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920.

Closed-loop registration is a separate Illinois surprise for traveling geothermal crews. Ask IDPH about that track before you bid a loop field.

What happens if you drill without an Illinois license?

Unlicensed water well contracting is a violation of 225 ILCS 345. IDPH can pursue people who never had a license and people whose license lapsed. The Department can also suspend or revoke a license it already issued.^[1]

I am not going to invent a fine table. Read the enforcement sections of the Act and ask IDPH what they currently do. Counties can halt the job and refuse to accept the well. That leaves the owner with a hole and a real estate problem.

Insurance is the quiet hammer. Many policies go soft if you were not legally allowed to do the work.

If your renewal is late, stop the ads and call the Department. Hoping nobody notices is not a plan.

Owners who hire unlicensed help can inherit a well the county will not sign. That shows up later in a sale, which is when everyone suddenly cares about 225 ILCS 345.

What should a first-year Illinois well driller actually do?

Order the current IDPH contractor application. Download the current text of 77 Ill. Adm. Code 915, 920, and 925. Read them on a night you are not tired. Then call the local health departments in the counties you will actually work.^[3][4][5]

Sit the exam when the code is in your head.

Make a one-page permit-and-report checklist per county. That page will save more jobs than a new paint job on the rig.

Carry real insurance. Write a grout procedure your helper can follow at 6 a.m. Use ISWS well records before you bid mystery depths.^[9]

Extension and ISWS well-owner material is what your customers already read. Skim it so you do not argue with a fact sheet in their kitchen.^[12]

WellDrillerPath publishes reference kits, not approvals. If you want the board-and-grout paper kit, start at /start. Confirm every fee and every date with IDPH and the county. Nobody here can promise you a license.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need a license for well driller in Illinois?

Yes. 225 ILCS 345 requires an Illinois Department of Public Health license before you work as a water well contractor or a water well pump installation contractor, including advertising that work. You also need a local health department permit for the specific well under 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920. Confirm any claimed exemption with IDPH in writing.

How much does well driller cost in Illinois?

State application, exam, and renewal fees are set on the current IDPH contractor packet. Confirm those numbers before you write a check. They change. A drilled well itself is a local bid driven by depth, casing, grout, and the pump. Nobody publishes an official statewide well price I trust. Get written bids from currently licensed contractors.

How long does well driller take in Illinois?

The original IDPH license follows application review plus a scheduled exam. There is no honest public clock to treat as a promise. Confirm the current exam calendar with the Department. County well permits and field time are separate. Typical private-well rig time is often a few days, then pump work, chlorination, and sampling.

Is there a separate pump installer license in Illinois?

Yes. Illinois licenses water well contractors and water well pump installation contractors as distinct occupations under 225 ILCS 345. IDPH can issue one side or a combined credential if you do both. Pump field rules sit in 77 Ill. Adm. Code 925. Do not assume a well-construction card covers pump-only jobs.

Do I need a county permit if I already have the state license?

Yes. The IDPH license says you may work in the occupation. The local health department permit says you may construct, modify, or seal that well on that parcel. 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920 is what local programs enforce. Call the county that covers the site. Fees and forms are local.

Does Illinois license closed-loop geothermal drillers?

Illinois treats closed-loop wells inside the Water Well Construction Code, 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920, with a contractor track that is not the same as a water-well card. Do not bid a loop field on a water well license and hope. Confirm the current closed-loop registration or license path with IDPH before you mobilize.

Where do I send the Illinois well construction report?

Send the water well construction report to IDPH and to the local health department after the well is completed. Local programs commonly say that filing is due within 30 days. Confirm the live deadline in 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920. The Illinois State Water Survey also collects well records through the Illinois Water Inventory Program.

Can a homeowner drill their own well in Illinois?

Do not assume yes. 225 ILCS 345 is written around the occupation of water well contractor, including advertising. Owner-builder stories from other states do not rewrite Illinois law. If you think a specific homeowner job is exempt, ask IDPH in writing before anyone turns a bit. Local permit rules still apply to the hole.

How do I confirm current IDPH well contractor fees?

Use the current Water Well and Pump Installation Contractor application materials on the IDPH private water pages, then call the Environmental Health private water unit if the PDF looks stale. 77 Ill. Adm. Code 915 is the license rule. Do not copy a fee from an old forum post or from this article.

What code covers grouting for Illinois water wells?

Grouting is in the Illinois Water Well Construction Code, 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920. Local health departments inspect against that Part. Approved materials and annular-space rules are not optional shop preferences. If you learned grout in another state, read the Illinois sections again before the first bag hits the hopper.

Does Illinois have reciprocity with other states?

Do not count on it. 225 ILCS 345 is an Illinois license. An out-of-state card may help show experience on an IDPH application. It does not let you advertise or drill tomorrow. Ask IDPH what the current packet actually accepts. Closed-loop work is another Illinois-specific question.

Who enforces well setbacks in Illinois?

Local health departments review setbacks when they issue the well construction permit under 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920. IDPH writes the statewide construction code those local programs enforce. Septic tanks, contamination sources, and property-line distances belong on the site sketch. A handshake with the owner does not move a setback.

What is the Water Well and Pump Installation Contractors Licensing Board?

It is the advisory licensing board attached to IDPH's water well and pump contractor program under 225 ILCS 345. It is not a separate walk-up agency. You still apply to the Department, sit the Department exam, and take Department discipline. Confirm current board notices on IDPH private water pages.

Do Illinois well drillers need continuing education?

Renewal rules, including any continuing education, live in 77 Ill. Adm. Code 915 and in the current IDPH renewal packet. Hour counts on forums go stale. Read the live rule for your license type and cycle. If CE is required on your card, calendar it before the expiration, not after you already advertised spring work.

Sources

1. Cornell LII, 77 Ill. Adm. Code Part 920 Water Well Construction Code: 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920 is the Illinois Water Well Construction Code covering construction, grouting, abandoned wells, and related reporting.
2. Cornell LII, 77 Ill. Adm. Code Part 915 Water Well and Pump Installation Contractor's License Code: 77 Ill. Adm. Code 915 is the IDPH rulebook for contractor license applications, examinations, and renewal.
3. Cornell LII, 77 Ill. Adm. Code Part 925 Water Well Pump Installation Code: 77 Ill. Adm. Code 925 is the Illinois code that governs water well pump installation work.
4. Illinois Department of Public Health, Private Water program: IDPH Environmental Health administers Illinois private water well construction and contractor licensing programs, and issues current applications, exam information, and program contacts.
5. Illinois State Water Survey, Groundwater Science: The Illinois State Water Survey collects and maintains Illinois well records and groundwater data used by drillers and hydrogeologists.
6. USGS Circular 1441, Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2015: USGS publishes state-level water-use estimates, including groundwater and self-supplied domestic use, but not contractor bid prices.
7. Illinois Pollution Control Board, 35 Ill. Adm. Code 620 Groundwater Quality Standards: Illinois groundwater quality standards are set in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 620.
8. Illinois State Water Survey, Groundwater Science: The Illinois State Water Survey provides private-well education and groundwater information on well care and water quality for Illinois owners.
9. U.S. EPA, Private Drinking Water Wells: EPA states that it does not regulate private wells; construction and water-quality oversight stay with state and local programs.