Borehole registration: what to do before and after drilling

The short answer: what a homeowner has to do

• Before drilling, find out the expected depth and how much water you will need per day. Whether a licence is needed depends on these two numbers.
• Before drilling, ask your building authority which document it requires for a new borehole. The regulations provide for an explanatory memorandum (paskaidrojuma raksts).
• If a licence is needed, the drilling company requests it from VVD. You sign a contract with the company and agree the work programme.
• After drilling, the company prepares the borehole passport and submits it to LVĢMC. You receive the approved copy, and it must be kept.
• If you no longer use the borehole, it is decommissioned (plugged), and a report is drawn up on this.

Rules for drilling a borehole: when you need a VVD licence

The law “On Subterranean Depths” allows a landowner to make and use a dug well or a water abstraction borehole on their own land without a subsoil use licence. This is allowed only if both conditions are met: the borehole is no deeper than 20 m, and no more than 10 m³ of groundwater a day is planned to be abstracted. If even one is not met, a licence is needed before drilling.

The licence application is submitted to VVD by the company that will drill, not by the homeowner. Before that, the state fee of €35.57 must be paid, and the licence is valid for up to one year. Attached to the application are details of the specialists and equipment, a work programme agreed with the client, the planned geological and technical cross-section of the borehole and the land boundary plan with the borehole location. If the company is not the landowner, a contract with the owner on the use of the subsoil is also needed.

Before issuing the licence, VVD may request a statement from LVĢMC on the water supply options at the specific site. Using the subsoil without the required licence is an offence, and the fine for a private individual is €70–1,050.

Explanatory memorandum at the building authority: the regulations and the VVD explanation differ

The General Construction Regulations class water abstraction boreholes and wells as first-group engineering structures, regardless of depth. The regulations on engineering structures provide for an explanatory memorandum for a new first-group engineering structure, submitted to the building authority through the Construction Information System (BIS). An accepted explanatory memorandum is valid for 5 years. No construction documents are needed to restore an existing borehole.

The VVD schemes describe the same step differently. The scheme for a borehole up to 20 m mentions a “certification card” (apliecinājuma karte) at the municipality, and for a borehole deeper than 20 m a building permit. Both schemes also mention an opinion of the Health Inspectorate on the suitability of the plot, for which we found no legal basis in the regulations.

That is why we recommend writing to your building authority before drilling and asking which document it expects for the specific borehole. A written answer protects you from surprises later, for example when selling the property. We give you the borehole data needed for the documents (the expected depth, the construction and the location on the plan) before the work.

The borehole passport and the borehole register

After drilling, the company prepares the water abstraction borehole passport and submits it to LVĢMC for approval. LVĢMC approves the passport within 10 working days, and the fee is €115.34 (no VAT is charged). One approved copy is kept in the State Geological Fund, the other goes to the client. The law states that groundwater is used on the basis of an approved borehole passport.

There is no separate “borehole register” in which the homeowner has to register the borehole themselves. LVĢMC maintains the “Urbumi” (boreholes) database, and the borehole data gets into it through the passport and the geological information that the driller hands over to the state free of charge. We did not find a deadline for submitting the passport in the law or in Cabinet Regulation No. 696; it may be written in the licence conditions.

For a borehole up to 20 m without a licence, the text of the regulations does not directly state that a passport is mandatory. However, in the VVD scheme the last step for such a borehole is also preparing the passport and having it approved by LVĢMC, so we recommend arranging the passport. What it contains: borehole passport.

Step by step: from the plan to an approved passport

1. Data about the site Find out how deep the neighbours' boreholes are and look at the available borehole data. How to find it: borehole map.
2. Consumption Estimate how much water you will need per day for the house, the garden and, for example, a guesthouse. The limit is 10 m³.
3. Building authority Submit an explanatory memorandum or another document that the building authority names in its answer.
4. Licence If the borehole will be deeper than 20 m or consumption higher than 10 m³ a day, the company requests a VVD licence. Drilling does not start without it.
5. Drilling and test pumping The driller records the layers, installs the pipes and the filter, flushes the borehole and determines the water level and the yield during test pumping.
6. Testing A water sample is tested in an accredited laboratory. The chemical and bacteriological tests are part of the passport.
7. Passport The company submits the passport to LVĢMC. After approval, keep your copy together with the property documents.

If you no longer use the borehole

A groundwater user who stops using a borehole must ensure that it is conserved or decommissioned. A document called “Report on the Decommissioning of a Borehole” is drawn up for decommissioning, and a copy goes to the State Geological Fund. A borehole that has not been plugged is a direct path for surface water into the aquifer. How the work is done: borehole decommissioning.

How much registration and the borehole itself cost

State fees are not our prices: they are set by legislation. Check the building authority's requirements with your municipality. How the work itself is done: borehole drilling; all prices: prices.