What we inspect
A home-sale well inspection is a look at the well you are buying, not a guarantee from the seller's old paperwork. We look at the wellhead, the pressure tank and switch, and the control equipment. When the buyer needs a yield number, we run a flow test. When the buyer needs to know what is in the water, we sample it and send it to a certified lab. The homeowner checklist is what to check before buying property. The lab panel is well water testing. A camera, when the casing itself is the question, is well video inspection.
The U.S. EPA page Protect Your Home's Water says to test a private well every year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids, and pH, and to test again after a repair, a flood, or a change in taste, odor, or color. Use a laboratory certified for drinking-water tests.
Riverside County well evaluation
Riverside County's rule is narrower than "every house sale." Ordinance No. 682, as amended through 682.4, Section 21, says a well evaluation is required for an individual domestic well that has been in existence for more than one year and will be used as a potable supply for a proposed development or improvement of property. That evaluation is required when someone applies to the Department of Environmental Health for waste disposal. The Department does the well-site inspection and the water sampling. The sample list in that section is total coliform, nitrate, fluoride, and total filterable residue (total dissolved solids), plus any other constituent the Department decides it needs. The water has to meet California Code of Regulations, Title 22. The Department cannot approve a source that fails the bacteriological standard. A fluoride or nitrate failure is recorded on the grant deed. Any extra test, including a pump test for yield, is done under the direct supervision of a California licensed C-57 well driller, a C-61 pump contractor, a D-21 pump contractor, or a certified hydrogeologist, at the owner's expense.
Section 20 of the same ordinance is the production test for an individual domestic well that provides drinking water to a residence. Standing water level is measured to at least 0.1 foot immediately before pumping and again immediately after. Pumping runs uninterrupted for at least two hours, until three or more wetted bore volumes have been discharged. Production is held at a constant rate of no less than 1 gallon per minute per residence, and the Department can require more. The well is not allowed to pump dry. Discharge is kept from running back into the well. The county's wells page is rivcoeh.org/wells. The ordinance PDF is Ordinance 682.4.
San Diego County
San Diego County does not use Riverside's Section 21 text. For a San Diego sale, ask the county what that transaction requires, and use the same field inspection: wellhead, equipment, a flow test when yield is the question, and a lab sample. Permit rules for drilling or destroying a well are on well destruction and abandonment and well drilling.
Questions we hear
Does every California home sale require a county well inspection?
No. Riverside County Ordinance 682.4 Section 21 requires a Department of Environmental Health well evaluation for an older individual domestic well that will supply a proposed development or improvement, when the application to the Department is for waste disposal. That is not a statewide rule for every resale.
Who runs the yield test in Riverside County?
Section 21 says an additional pump test for yield is performed under the direct supervision of a C-57 well driller, a C-61 or D-21 pump contractor, or a certified hydrogeologist. Section 20 spells out the production-test measurements for a domestic well serving a residence.
What should a buyer test the water for?
The U.S. EPA recommends an annual test for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids, and pH, and a new test after a repair or a change in the water. Riverside's Section 21 list, when that evaluation applies, is total coliform, nitrate, fluoride, and total dissolved solids.