You can drill a well on your own land in Washington and pump up to 5,000 gallons a day without ever applying for a water right. No hearing, no years-long wait, no permit from the state for the water itself. That one sentence has put running water in thousands of homes across Chelan, Douglas, and Grant counties.
It’s also one of the most misunderstood laws in rural real estate. We’ve met folks in Cashmere who thought “exempt” meant “no rules at all” and folks in Quincy who thought they needed a full water right just to water a garden. Both were wrong, and both nearly made expensive mistakes.
Here’s the deal. A permit exempt well in Washington is exempt from one specific thing: the water right permit. Everything else, the drilling rules, the construction standards, the county building requirements, the daily gallon limits, still applies. This article walks through exactly what the exemption covers, what changed after the Hirst decision, what’s different in our basins around Wenatchee, and the steps you still have to take before a drill rig shows up.
We’re Wenatchee Well Pros. We don’t drill new wells, but we service the pumps, pressure tanks, and water systems on exempt wells all over North Central Washington, and we get these questions weekly. If you’ve got a well question that can’t wait, call us at (509) 351-8404 and we’ll give you a straight answer for free.
What a Permit-Exempt Well in Washington Actually Is
Washington water law starts from a simple premise: the water belongs to the public. If you want to take it, you need a water right from the Department of Ecology. Getting one can take years, sometimes decades in backlogged basins.
The legislature carved out an exception back in 1945, written into RCW 90.44.050. It says small groundwater withdrawals don’t need a permit. That’s the entire magic of the exempt well. It lets a family build a home on 5 or 20 acres outside city limits without waiting in the water rights line.
Two things people miss:
It’s still a water right. Your exempt well carries a real, legal water right with a priority date, the date you first put the water to beneficial use. It can be regulated in a drought just like any other right, and junior rights yield to senior ones. It can also be relinquished if you stop using it for five or more years without a valid excuse.
It’s exempt from the permit, not from regulation. You still have to use a licensed driller, follow the state well construction standards in Chapter 173-160 WAC, file a Notice of Intent with Ecology before drilling, and stay inside the use limits below. Ecology’s own permit-exempt well page is worth ten minutes of your time before you spend a dime.
The Four Uses the Groundwater Exemption Covers
The exemption isn’t a blank check for 5,000 gallons of anything. It covers four specific categories of use, each with its own limit.
| Exempt use | Daily limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Single or group domestic supply | 5,000 gallons/day | Household use for one home or a small group of homes, may be lower in some basins |
| Lawn and noncommercial garden | No gallon cap | Limited to 1/2 acre of irrigated area total |
| Stock watering | No gallon cap | Livestock drinking water, a big deal in orchard and ranch country |
| Industrial purposes | 5,000 gallons/day | Includes commercial uses, even small ones like a farm stand or shop |
A few practical notes from the field:
The half acre matters more than the gallons for most homes. A typical family uses 200 to 400 gallons a day indoors. You’ll never touch 5,000 gallons from household use. Where people get in trouble is irrigation. A half acre of lawn in our July heat can drink 1,000 to 1,500 gallons a day, and that’s allowed, but a full acre of irrigated grass is not, no matter how few gallons you claim.
You can’t stack exemptions for a development. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2002 (the Campbell & Gwinn case) that a developer can’t split one project into six lots and drill six exempt wells to dodge the permit process. One project, one exemption. If you’re buying into a small plat served by a shared exempt well, read our guide on how shared wells work in Washington before you sign anything.
Stock water is genuinely unlimited. That’s why you’ll see big stock tanks on dryland parcels out toward Moses Lake running off a single exempt well, all legal.
What Changed After Hirst: The 2018 Streamflow Law
In 2016 the Washington Supreme Court’s Hirst decision dropped a bomb on rural counties. It said counties couldn’t just assume an exempt well had water legally available. They had to verify it before issuing a building permit. Overnight, some counties stopped issuing rural building permits entirely. Lenders pulled out of deals. Land values on unbuilt parcels sagged.
The legislature patched it in January 2018 with the Streamflow Restoration law (ESSB 6091, now RCW 90.94). Here’s what it means for you today:
- In about 15 watersheds with adopted instream flow rules, new domestic exempt wells pay a $500 fee to the county at building permit time.
- In most of those basins, new domestic use is capped at a 3,000 gallon per day annual average instead of 5,000. In a couple of westside basins it’s as low as 950 gallons a day, but that’s not our area.
- The money funds streamflow restoration projects, the trade-off that made the fix politically possible.
The practical takeaway: the limits on a permit exempt well in Washington now depend on which watershed (WRIA) your parcel sits in and when your well went in. Wells already in use before 2018 kept their original status. New wells in regulated basins play by the new numbers.
If you’re pricing out a new build from bare ground, our breakdown of well drilling costs in Washington pairs well with this article, because the legal limits and the drilling bill are the two numbers that decide whether a parcel pencils out.
Permit-Exempt Well Rules Around Wenatchee, Chelan, and Quincy
Our service area spans several watersheds, and the rules shift as you cross basin lines.
Wenatchee basin (WRIA 45). The Wenatchee River watershed, which includes Cashmere, Leavenworth, Peshastin, and Plain, has had its own instream flow rule since 2007. The rule set aside water reserves for future domestic use, but some tributaries have tighter limits or seasonal closures. Before drilling anywhere up the valley, check the parcel against Ecology’s well guidance maps or call their Central Regional Office in Union Gap.
Chelan area (WRIA 47). Parcels around Lake Chelan and Manson sit in their own watershed with its own history. Don’t assume the rules from a Wenatchee parcel carry over.
Douglas County (East Wenatchee, Moses Coulee). Much of Douglas County draws from deeper basalt aquifers. The exemption applies, but depth drives cost. Some wells out here run 400 to 600 feet or more. Our article on how deep wells run around Wenatchee covers what that means for your pump and your power bill.
Grant County (Quincy, Moses Lake). Groundwater here is tangled up with the Columbia Basin Project and declining aquifer levels in spots. Exempt domestic wells are still drilled regularly, but smart buyers verify water availability in writing before closing.
The honest advice: never rely on a seller’s word, a neighbor’s well, or a blog post (including this one) as your final answer on a specific parcel. Spend an hour with the county planning department and Ecology’s maps first. It’s free, and it has saved our customers from six-figure mistakes.
And if you’re buying a place that already has a well, get the whole system evaluated before closing. We do pre-purchase well system checks all over the valley. Request a free estimate here and we’ll look at the pump, pressure tank, and flow before you’re locked in.
What You Still Have to Do Before and After Drilling
“Exempt” skips the water right permit. It doesn’t skip the paperwork. Here’s the real checklist:
Before the rig arrives
- Confirm water availability for your basin. County planning plus Ecology. This is the Hirst homework, and the county will require it for your building permit under RCW 19.27.097.
- Hire a licensed well driller. Required by state law, no exceptions for “my cousin has an excavator.”
- File the Notice of Intent. Your driller files it with Ecology at least 72 hours before drilling, with a $200 fee per well.
- Check setbacks. Generally 100 feet from septic drainfields, 50 feet from septic tanks, and required distances from property lines and livestock areas. The Department of Health’s private well guidance lays these out.
After the well is in
- Get the well log. The driller files a water well report with Ecology. Keep your copy forever. It tells future pump techs the depth, casing, and static water level.
- Test the water. At minimum, bacteria and nitrates before you drink it. Our guide to well water testing in the Wenatchee area covers what to test and how often.
- Size and install the pump system properly. Pump, drop pipe, pressure tank, pressure switch, control box. This is where we come in. A well that produces beautifully can still deliver lousy water pressure if the pump and tank are sized wrong from day one.
- Keep using the water. Remember relinquishment. Five-plus years of total nonuse can cost you the right.
Real Stories: How the Exemption Plays Out on the Ground
Rita in Quincy bought 10 acres in 2024 planning a house and a 2-acre irrigated pasture for three horses. The exempt well covered her house and unlimited stock water, no problem. The 2 acres of pasture irrigation did not, because irrigation beyond a half acre of lawn and garden isn’t an exempt use. She found out from the county two weeks before drilling, not after. She downsized to a half acre of irrigated paddock plus dryland grazing and saved herself from a well she couldn’t legally use as planned.
The Hendersons in Cashmere went the other way. They almost walked away from a great parcel up Brender Canyon because a neighbor told them “you can’t get water rights up here anymore.” True for a new permit, irrelevant for their single home. Their parcel sat inside the domestic reserve, the exempt well was legal, and the well came in at 180 feet. The whole drilling and pump package ran about $21,000. They’d budgeted $40,000 based on bad fence-line advice.
Marcus near Leavenworth learned the maintenance side the hard way. His 1990s exempt well was grandfathered and golden, but the original pump finally quit on a Friday in February at 12 degrees outside. No water, no heat tape on the pitless, pipes starting to freeze. We had a new submersible in by Saturday afternoon, $3,400 all in. The law had nothing to do with it. Thirty-year-old pumps fail, and they pick bad weather to do it. If yours is that age, read up on how long well pumps actually last before winter forces the issue.
No water right paperwork in the world helps when the pump itself dies. If your exempt well stops delivering, day or night, call (509) 351-8404. We run 24/7 emergency no-water service across Chelan, Douglas, and Grant counties.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need any permit at all for a permit-exempt well in Washington?
You don’t need a water right permit, but you’re not paperwork-free. Your driller must file a Notice of Intent with Ecology ($200) before drilling, your county building permit requires proof of adequate water, and in basins covered by the 2018 streamflow law you’ll pay a $500 fee at permit time. Local health districts may add their own requirements.
Can I really pump 5,000 gallons a day from an exempt well?
Legally, up to 5,000 gallons a day for domestic use in most basins, with some watersheds capped at a 3,000 gallon daily average for new wells. Practically, your well’s actual yield and your pump’s capacity are usually the real ceiling. Plenty of good household wells in our area produce 5 to 15 gallons a minute, which is far more than a family needs but well under the legal max if you ran it nonstop.
Does an old exempt well lose its status under the new rules?
No. Wells that were already drilled and in use kept the rules that applied when they were established, and the 2018 law didn’t take anything away from existing users. The bigger risk to an old well is nonuse. If the water hasn’t been put to beneficial use for five or more years, the right can be relinquished, so document your usage if a property has sat vacant.
Can two or more homes share one permit-exempt well?
Yes, group domestic use is allowed under the same 5,000 gallon daily limit, and shared exempt wells are common across North Central Washington. You’ll want a recorded well-sharing agreement covering costs, access, and maintenance, and at a certain number of connections the system can become a regulated Group B public water system. Get the agreement in writing before money changes hands.
Wenatchee Well Pros services well pumps, pressure tanks, and water systems on permit-exempt wells throughout Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Cashmere, Leavenworth, Chelan, Quincy, and Moses Lake. Licensed and insured in Washington. Free estimates, straight answers, and 24/7 emergency well service when the water stops.