BC draws one line, and it decides almost everything: domestic use or not.
Domestic use of groundwater needs no licence. Under the Water Sustainability Act, domestic use is household use by the occupants of a private dwelling, or of more than one on a single parcel: drinking, cooking, and washing; fire prevention; water for animals kept for the household or as pets; and a garden or lawn of up to 1,000 square meters next to the home.
Almost everything else needs one. Irrigating a hayfield or an orchard, watering a herd, running a business, a greenhouse, a campground, or a golf course: these are non-domestic uses. They need a water licence or other authorization unless an existing exemption applies.
The surprise case. A well serving a strata, a co-op, an apartment building, or a hotel isn’t domestic use under the Act, even though people live there.
What about the proposed exemption? The Province is exploring an exemption for non-domestic groundwater use under 2 cubic meters a day, counting all non-domestic use on a property, and only where water is available. It isn’t law. Until it is, the rules above stand.
The Note: The question isn’t how much water you use; it’s what the water does. A cow kept for the household is domestic. A herd raised for sale is not. Small doesn’t make a use exempt, either: until the law changes, a small farm or business use still needs a licence.
Who should pay attention: Anyone using a well for more than a home: farms, ranches, rural businesses, strata and co-ops, and buyers of land with a working well.
What to do next: If any of your water use is non-domestic and unlicensed, read Missed the 2022 Deadline? What It Really Means Now next, then get a licence estimate. If your well is domestic only, you need no licence, though registering the well with the Province is still worth doing.
