Requirements, license levels, and the issuing authority, sourced from Texas's official board.
Texas licenses water well drillers and pump installers through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which states that a license is required to drill a water-related well in Texas and to install a pump for a water-related well.
| Requirements | TDLR states that a license is required to drill a water-related well in Texas and to install a pump for a water-related well. License applicants must show a minimum of two years of relevant experience working under a licensed driller or installer, and must document that experience on the application. TDLR sets a separate number of completed drillings or installations for each endorsement: 15 for the Water Wells endorsement, 50 each for Monitor, Injection, Dewatering and Closed Loop Geothermal Wells, and 215 total for the Master Driller license; on the pump side, 15 each for the Single Phase, 3 Phase, Turbine and Windmill/Pump Jack/Hand Pump endorsements and 60 total for the Master Installer license. After TDLR verifies the credentials the applicant is approved to sit the licensing examination, and all requirements including the exam must be met within one year of the date TDLR received the application. Published application fees are $430 for a well driller, $430 for a pump installer, $650 for a combination, and $25 to add an endorsement. Apprentice registration requires the applicant to be at least 18 and to work under a driller or installer who has held a Texas license for at least two years. |
| Reciprocity | Authorised by statute but not published as an active programme. Texas Occupations Code § 1901.162 ('Waiver for Applicant Licensed in Another State') provides that the commission may adopt rules allowing waiver of a licence requirement for an applicant who is licensed in another state that has licence requirements substantially equivalent to those of this state, with an identical provision for pump installers at § 1902.162. That is a delegated rulemaking authorisation naming no states, not a self-executing reciprocity grant. The Department of Licensing and Regulation's own pages for this programme, the driller and installer application page and the laws and rules page, describe no out-of-state waiver, form or process, in contrast to TDLR's electrician and air conditioning and refrigeration programmes, which do publish active reciprocity pages. Whether TDLR ever adopted an implementing rule under § 1901.162 could not be established: the Texas rule-publishing portal for 16 TAC chapter 76 is a JavaScript application that returned no readable rule text. |
| Renewal | Driller and installer licenses are valid for two years from the date of issue. Continuing education is required to renew: a total of eight hours per two-year license, including one hour of instruction on the Water Well Driller and Pump Installer statutes and rules. Apprentice registrations require one hour of continuing education to renew. |
| Notes | Texas licenses water well drillers and pump installers through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which states that a license is required to drill a water-related well in Texas and to install a pump for a water-related well. |
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Sources: www.tdlr.texas.gov, www.tdlr.texas.gov, www.tdlr.texas.gov, www.tdlr.texas.gov. Always confirm current requirements with the issuing authority.
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