First, any alteration to the well or its tag must be made by a licensed well technician working for a licensed well drilling contractor. Normally, the tag cannot be removed unless:

• The tag is being temporarily removed and protected during alterations to the well
• The tag is being replaced due to damage
• The well is being abandoned

No, some consultants have done this in the past, leading Ministry of Environment staff to visit their offices and demand to know why the company appears to own so much Ontario land, all of it with well installations.

The purpose of getting the property owner’s signature is to ensure that the owner is aware that there are one or more wells on his/her property. Without that knowledge, the owner might conduct some future activity that which could inadvertently compromise the well.

When you book a Kodiak drill crew, you receive a package requesting several pieces of information. That information will enable us to file either individual or cluster records. Our drillers can collect some of the field information, but if your technician collects it, we will spend our time drilling, and then use only a short time to review the information that you provide.

Here are the conditions that must be met to file a “cluster record”:

• Each owner of land on which a well in the group is located must give written consent to the use of a single (“cluster”) well record (Note: This poses one of the most difficult obstacles for many consultants).
• All wells must be test holes or dewatering wells
• All wells must be located on the same property, on adjacent property (that may be separated by a road) or under specific conditions, within one or two intervening properties of another well in the cluster.

If you know that you won’t be able to get signed permission from the property owner to file a cluster record, please let us know before the job starts. Our crew will simply bring enough well tags to tag every well individually.

Yes, we have a nominal charge for every record we file. That charge goes towards the time spent to file the well record, provide and keep track of the tag, and update our tracking system to ensure that the Ministry has an accurate record of the wells we have drilled at the end of the year.

If we have drilled several wells for you, we will make every effort to file a single cluster record, rather than one record for each well. That saves us time, and saves you money. But we need some details from you in order to file the cluster record, such as signed permission from the property owner to file the cluster record. If you can’t get signed permission, please let us know before the job and we’ll simply bring enough tags to the site to tag every well.

You can help reduce costs by filling out the information package that we provide when you book the job. This way, our drill crew will spend most of their time drilling, and only a short time reviewing the information that you have provided.

Well records must be filed for every well that is drilled or modified in Ontario, regardless of the purpose of the well, with two exceptions:

• The well is a test hole or dewatering well that will be abandoned within 30 days of completion
• The alteration made to the well is minor or involves nothing more than the installation of a pump

One record must be filed for every well drilled. However, if a group of wells meet certain conditions, a single record may be filed for a “cluster” of wells.