Borehole for a business: design, permits and tax

What to find out before the design

• Consumption: average and maximum per day, including seasonal peaks (watering, animals, process water).
• How many people will use the water: employees, residents, guests.
• What the water is for: drinking, production, an ingredient of drinks or food, watering.
• The location and land rights, and what is around it: buildings, roads, wastewater plants, fuel stores.

These data determine the borehole diameter, the pump and whether one or several boreholes are needed. Before issuing a licence, the State Environmental Service (VVD) may request a statement from the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LVĢMC) on the possibilities of groundwater use, and it is worth ordering this already at the planning stage.

Borehole design

A business borehole is drilled to a design. The building code requires the construction intention documentation to include the scope of investigation, the drilling method, the borehole design and depth, the filter type, the pipe and filter materials, the head equipment and test pumping. For the licence application, the company attaches the designed geological and technical section, a work programme agreed with the client and a land boundary plan with the borehole location.

For higher consumption the design also includes a standby borehole, because otherwise maintenance of the single borehole or a pump replacement stops the whole water supply. After drilling, test pumping shows the actual yield, and it is entered in the borehole passport, on which the further water supply design is based.

Protection zones around a business borehole

No protection zones are set for a private individual's borehole for their own needs, but for a business or village water intake they are set according to a methodology. The width of the strict-regime protection zone depends on how well the aquifer is covered by poorly permeable layers: from 10 m for a very well protected aquifer to at least 50 m for an unprotected one. The strict-regime zone is fenced, and any economic activity in it is prohibited except maintaining the water intake.

The bacteriological protection zone must not contain wastewater treatment plants and holding tanks, manure stores, cemeteries, fuel stores or unplugged boreholes. That is why the borehole location is chosen before the rest of the site layout is planned. Unused boreholes on the site are decommissioned: borehole decommissioning.

Water use permit

A water use permit from the State Environmental Service is needed if groundwater is extracted at 10 m³ per day or more, or if the water supply serves more than 50 people. It is also needed if mineral or thermal water is used commercially, or if the extraction may significantly affect the environment.

1. Application Submitted to the VVD regional environmental board no later than 60 days before the activity starts.
2. Attachments Maps, documents proving land rights, an expert opinion on permissible hydrogeological changes and the borehole passport.
3. State fee €78.26 for the permit.
4. Validity The permit is issued for the entire period of the activity and reviewed every seven years.
5. Report Every year by 1 March, the permit holder submits the report “No. 2 - Ūdens” (water) for the previous year to LVĢMC.

If more than 100 m³ per day is to be extracted, you also need a groundwater deposit passport, issued by VVD based on reserves accepted by LVĢMC; the state fee up to 1,000 m³ per day is €398.40.

Natural resources tax on groundwater

Tax on groundwater extraction is payable if extraction exceeds 10 m³ per day. If the limit set in the permit is lower, tax is paid only on the volume above the limit. For groundwater used in water supply the rates are €0.05/m³ for high-value, €0.041/m³ for medium-value and €0.02/m³ for low-value water; the same rates apply to water used as an ingredient in the production of drinks or food.

The return is submitted to the State Revenue Service by the 20th of the month after the end of the quarter, and the tax is paid by the 23rd. If the annual tax does not exceed €142.29, the return is submitted once a year by 20 January. A water meter at the borehole is the simplest way to know the real volume. More detail: natural resources tax for boreholes.

Drinking water requirements

Cabinet Regulation No. 547 on drinking water does not apply to a source used by fewer than 50 people or from which no more than an average of 10 m³ per day is extracted (sub-point 4.5). If 50 or more people use the water and extraction exceeds 10 m³ per day, or if the water supplies a public building, the regulation's requirements apply to your water. We take samples for testing and deliver them to an accredited laboratory: borehole water testing.

How much a borehole for a business costs

The price of a business borehole is set by the design, so we name it once the consumption and location are known. The starting price for drilling a private house borehole is from €65/m, but for a business borehole the price is affected by:

• the yield required, and hence the borehole and pipe diameter;
• the depth to an aquifer able to deliver the required volume;
• the pipe material specified in the design, often steel;
• the number of boreholes, if a standby borehole is needed;
• equipment: pumps, controls, a meter, a pavilion or chamber;
• the design, statements and expert opinions, as well as state fees, which are not our price.

Fill in the form with the consumption and location, and we will prepare a quote with the sequence of work. Other prices: prices.