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# I Keep a Few Goats and Sell One a Year. Does My Well Need a Licence in BC?
- URL: https://bcgroundwaterwire.ca/bc-hobby-farm-goats-horses-well-licence/
- Published: 2026-10-23T05:17:27.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:17:27.000Z
- Description: It depends on what the animals are kept for, not how many there are. Water for animals or poultry kept for household use or as pets is domestic and needs no licence. Water for an enterprise raising livestock, or for a kennel or a boarding stable, is an industrial purpose and does.
- Author: Colleen Roberts
- Tags: Rural Property, Licensing, #question, #who-home, #who-farm

It depends on what the animals are kept for, not on how many there are. In British Columbia, domestic use of groundwater needs no licence, and the Act’s definition of domestic purpose, in the Province’s [list of water use purposes](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/air-land-water/water/water-licensing-and-rights/water%5Fuse%5Fpurpose%5Fdefns.pdf?ref=bcgroundwaterwire.ca), includes “providing water to animals or poultry kept (i) for household use, or (ii) as pets.” A family cow, a few laying hens, a horse ridden on weekends: that water fits the Province’s own definition.

Where it stops being domestic. The same list puts livestock water under the industrial purpose, as the sub-purpose “livestock and animal”: water “to provide drinking water and sanitation requirements in the operation or maintenance of a kennel, an animal shelter or boarding facility, a ranch or feedlot operation, or a game farm, dairy farm, pig farm or poultry farm, or similar enterprise for rearing livestock.” A boarding facility is on that list by name, which takes in a boarding stable. So is any enterprise raising livestock.

What the Province does not say. Its definitions draw the line at what the animals are kept for. They give no number of animals, and no sale that turns a household’s goats into an enterprise. Its [groundwater licensing questions and answers](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/air-land-water/water/gwlicensingqas-2020.pdf?ref=bcgroundwaterwire.ca) add one line, “Home businesses must also apply for a water licence,” in a document that predates the 2022 deadline and is still linked from the Province’s current page.

Two neighbours of this question. Water for the hay or the pasture is irrigation, a purpose of its own, whatever the animals are. And the Province’s [proposed exemption](https://bcgroundwaterwire.ca/changelog/small-groundwater-use-licence-exemption/) for small non-domestic use, under 2 cubic metres a day, is a proposal, not law.

**The Note:** Ask what the water does, and name it that way on any application. The Province draws its line at purpose, not headcount; where a household’s animals become an enterprise is a judgment its definitions leave to you.

**Who should pay attention:** Hobby farms and acreages in BC with a few animals; anyone boarding horses, breeding dogs, or raising stock for sale on a well; and buyers of small farms.

**What to do next:** Name what the water does: household animals, a boarding or breeding operation, stock raised for sale, or irrigation of pasture. If any part is an enterprise, apply for a licence for that purpose; FrontCounter BC can confirm which purpose applies. If the animals are the household’s, no licence is needed, and registering the well is worth doing.

**Checked against:** Province of BC, [Definitions for Water Use Purposes and Categories of Water Use Purposes](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/air-land-water/water/water-licensing-and-rights/water%5Fuse%5Fpurpose%5Fdefns.pdf?ref=bcgroundwaterwire.ca), revised June 22, 2016; [Groundwater Licensing Questions and Answers](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/air-land-water/water/gwlicensingqas-2020.pdf?ref=bcgroundwaterwire.ca) (undated, before March 2022); [Requirements for Groundwater Users](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/air-land-water/water/water-licensing-rights/water-licences-approvals/new-requirements-for-groundwater-users?ref=bcgroundwaterwire.ca), updated May 22, 2026 · checked October 10, 2026

**Related on the Wire:** [Your Livestock Licence Says “Industrial.” That’s Not a Mistake](https://bcgroundwaterwire.ca/your-livestock-licence-says-industrial-thats-not-a-mistake/); [Do I Actually Need a Groundwater Licence in BC? The Five-Minute Answer.](https://bcgroundwaterwire.ca/do-i-actually-need-a-groundwater-licence/)