How do I test a well before buying a property in BC?

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Ask for two tests: a flow test of how much water the well gives, and a lab test of the water; no BC rule we read sets a minimum flow for a home. A house on a well has two questions behind it: is there enough water, and is it safe to drink. A flow test answers the first for the day it's run; a lab test of the water answers the second for the day the sample is taken. Neither is done for you in a sale: the buyer asks for them. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. The yield on record: A driller who drills or alters a water supply well must run a well yield test and put it in the well construction report the owner and the Province get (Groundwater Protection Regulation ss. 31, 76): the method, rate and length of the test, the drawdown and the yield estimated from it. A well yield test is airlifting, bailing or a similar method that gives only an approximate estimate of what the well can produce (s. 1). It's skipped when there's too little water to run one (s. 31 (2)). That figure is the record in GWELLS; older wells and wells never registered may have none. A flow test for the sale: The regulation calls a pumping test or a well yield test a flow test (s. 1 (2)). A pumping test the Province asks for, for a licence or by order, is designed, run and read by a professional in hydrogeology (s. 32); for a sale, nothing in the regulation says how a test is run or who runs it (our reading). Commonly a registered well pump installer or driller pumps the well for some hours with the house's own pump or a test pump, and reports the rate, how far the water level drops and how fast it comes back (our reading). Both trades are on the Province's registers. How much is enough: We found no provincial minimum flow for a home. What counts as enough is the lender's, the local government's or yours: some councils and regional districts ask for proof of water before a building permit or subdivision (ask whether this one does), and a lender may name a flow it needs. A test in a wet spring can read higher than the same well gives in late summer (our reading). The water test: The owner of a well serving one home is responsible for testing its water, at a qualified laboratory (HealthLink BC). Test for bacteria, total coliforms and E. coli, at least once a year and whenever the water's clarity, colour or taste changes; E. coli means the water isn't safe to drink untreated. Test the chemistry when a well is new and then yearly: in BC groundwater the common concerns are nitrate, fluoride and metals such as arsenic, lead, copper and manganese. One day's water: A result tells you about the water on the day it was sampled. Weather, seasons, drought and floods can change it, and a neighbour's clean result doesn't say yours is clean too (HealthLink BC). The lab supplies the bottles and the sampling steps; follow them exactly. A well for more than one home: A well supplying two or more connections makes its owner a water supplier under the Drinking Water Protection Act, with duties set by the health authority (HealthLink BC); see sharing a well. What it means for a buyer: The well record says what the driller found when the well was made, not what it gives today. Ask the seller for the record, past water results and any treatment the house has; then have both tests done before subjects come off, and ask the lender first what it will accept.

How do I test a well before buying a property in BC?

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Before you buy: who to ask