Washington State Shared Well Agreement Requirements

A Washington state shared well agreement is a notarized, recorded contract between the owners of properties that draw from the same well. It divides the state’s collective permit-exempt water allowance among the connected homes, assigns responsibility for electricity, testing, and repairs, grants easements for the wellhead and water lines, and locks in the provisions that FHA and VA lenders require before they’ll finance any of the connected parcels. Without a recorded agreement, you have no enforceable way to resolve disputes and a hard time selling or refinancing.

The Collective Water Limit You’re Dividing

Washington’s Groundwater Code treats all groundwater as a public resource that normally requires a permit from the Department of Ecology before anyone pumps it.¹ RCW 90.44.050 carves out an exemption for small withdrawals: domestic use up to 5,000 gallons per day, industrial use up to 5,000 gallons per day, irrigation of a lawn or garden no larger than half an acre, and livestock watering.²

Here is the point that catches people out. The 5,000-gallon domestic limit is a project limit, not a per-house limit. Four households sharing one well share one 5,000-gallon daily allowance, and their combined irrigated lawn and garden area must stay at or below half an acre. Ecology confirms that even when water comes from multiple wells serving the same project, every gallon counts toward the exemption together.² Blow past the ceiling collectively and the group needs a water right permit.

Your agreement needs to state each household’s share of that daily allowance in gallons, and it should address what happens during summer irrigation months when demand spikes. Spelling it out is what keeps the group lawful.

Lower Limits in Certain Watersheds

If your property sits in one of the 15 watershed resource inventory areas (WRIAs) covered by Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6091, passed in 2018, your allowance is smaller than the standard 5,000 gallons.³ The ceiling depends on which planning process applies:

In updated watershed plan WRIAs (Nooksack, Nisqually, Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, Okanogan, Little Spokane, and Colville), the maximum annual average withdrawal drops to 3,000 gallons per day for domestic use only.
In watershed restoration and enhancement plan WRIAs (Snohomish, Cedar-Sammamish, Duwamish-Green, Puyallup-White, Chambers-Clover, Deschutes, Kennedy-Goldsborough, and Kitsap), the maximum drops to 950 gallons per day, and in a drought emergency Ecology can curtail withdrawals to 350 gallons per day.

Building permit applicants in these WRIAs also pay a $500 fee.³ If you are in one of these watersheds, divide the smaller number across your households and write that number into the agreement. Using the 5,000-gallon figure in a 950-gallon WRIA would put every connected home over the lawful limit.

What the Agreement Must Contain

County health departments across Washington publish template agreements, but the specifics vary by jurisdiction. A workable Washington agreement covers the following.

Identification and Easements

Every participating property must be identified by its legal description and tax parcel number so the agreement attaches to the right parcels in county records.⁴ The agreement should also create recorded easements for the wellhead and for any water lines crossing a neighbor’s land. Make the easements wide enough to allow heavy equipment access when the well needs to be deepened or the pump pulled. Without a recorded easement, a crew entering a neighbor’s land to repair a line is trespassing.

Water Allocation

State each household’s share of the collective daily limit in gallons, based on the figure that applies to your watershed, and address seasonal irrigation so the group stays under the half-acre cap on lawn and garden irrigation.²

Cost Sharing and a Reserve Fund

Electricity for the pump is the main recurring cost. Some owners install separate meters so each household pays for its own usage; others split the power bill equally or by a set percentage. Either method works if the agreement names it and sets a monthly payment deadline. When one party stops paying, the pump still runs, and the paying owners should not be absorbing someone else’s share indefinitely.

Build a reserve fund into the agreement. Submersible pumps last roughly 8 to 15 years, and full replacement runs about $1,500 to $3,000 depending on well depth and components. A monthly contribution of $20 to $30 per household builds a cushion that avoids emergency assessments the day the pump dies.

Water Quality Testing

The Washington Department of Health recommends testing private wells annually for coliform bacteria and nitrate.⁵ Specify who schedules the testing, how the cost is split, and what the group will do if a sample fails. Agreeing on a corrective-action process in advance avoids the painful dynamic where one owner wants a treatment system installed and the others refuse to pay toward it.

FHA-Mandatory Provisions

If anyone on the system might ever finance with an FHA loan, HUD Handbook 4000.1 requires specific language in the agreement, and the easiest path is to include it from the start.⁶ FHA caps a shared well at no more than four properties and expects the agreement to:

Run with the land and bind future owners, with any existing mortgage holder on a connected property joining the agreement.
Allow any party to request water sampling and testing by the local health authority at any time.
Guarantee continuity of service to supplied parties even if the property hosting the well is sold to an owner who does not need the water.
Restrict use to domestic purposes only, with no commercial or agricultural use.
Prohibit adding any new dwelling to the system without consent of all parties and a written amendment.
Require each dwelling’s service line to have its own shutoff valve at the well, so one home can be disconnected without interrupting the others.

FHA also expects each existing dwelling to be able to draw at least three gallons per minute over a continuous four-hour period, with pressurized storage making up the difference if the well’s natural yield falls short.⁶ That is an appraisal question rather than a drafting question, but it’s worth confirming before you build the agreement around a well that cannot meet the standard.

Wellhead Setbacks the Agreement Should Protect

Washington’s well construction standards under WAC 173-160-171 set minimum distances between a non-public-supply well and potential contamination sources:⁷

50 feet from septic tanks, holding tanks, pump chambers, and distribution boxes
50 feet from building sewers, public sewers, and non-perforated distribution lines
100 feet from a drainfield, a proposed drainfield approved by a health authority, or a reserve drainfield area
100 feet from all other potential contamination sources, excluding landfills
1,000 feet from the boundary of a solid waste landfill

Reference these setbacks in the agreement and prohibit activities inside the protection zone that could contaminate the water: fuel or chemical storage, parking vehicles that leak fluids, applying pesticides near the wellhead. When the well sits on one owner’s land, the other owners have a legitimate interest in what happens there, and the agreement is what gives them a voice.

Group B Classification and Local Rules

Any well serving multiple properties is a public water system under WAC 246-291. A Group B system serves fewer than 15 connections and fewer than 25 people per day, so even a two-party shared well falls inside that definition. The state Group B rule does not require ongoing water quality monitoring, but local health jurisdictions can impose stricter rules. Some counties require regular coliform and nitrate sampling and reporting; others take a lighter approach for simple two-party systems.⁸

Call your local health jurisdiction before you finalize the agreement, find out exactly what applies to your system, and assign responsibility for the required testing and reporting so nobody assumes someone else is handling it.

Recording the Agreement

Every owner listed in the agreement must sign in front of a notary public before the county auditor will record it. The notary verifies each signer’s identity and applies an official seal, which is a prerequisite for recording any document affecting real property interests in Washington.⁹ File the notarized agreement with the county auditor’s office in the county where the properties sit. Many county health departments require proof of recording before they issue water availability approval, and building departments typically require it before issuing construction permits for properties on a shared well.¹⁰

Recording fees vary by county and generally include a first-page charge plus a per-page fee for additional pages. Keep the document as concise as possible to hold down costs. Once processed, the auditor assigns a unique instrument number that permanently ties the agreement to the public land records. That number is what title companies and future lenders use to confirm the agreement exists, and recording turns the private contract into a covenant that binds every future owner of every connected parcel.

Selling a Property on a Shared Well

Washington’s seller disclosure law under RCW 64.06.020 requires residential sellers to complete a standardized disclosure form with specific questions about the water source: whether the property uses a shared water system, whether written agreements exist, whether recorded or unrecorded easements cover the source, whether any repairs are needed, and whether the source has delivered adequate year-round potable water during the seller’s ownership.¹¹

The form also asks about water rights, including whether a permit, certificate, or claim exists and whether any portion of the right has gone unused for five or more consecutive years. Washington follows a “use it or lose it” doctrine, so partial abandonment through non-use is something buyers need to know about before closing. A properly recorded agreement makes the whole sale smoother: the title company pulls it from public records, the lender confirms it meets FHA or VA standards, and the buyer sees exactly what obligations come with the house.

Handling Disputes

The most common fights involve one owner refusing to pay a share of a repair, one household drawing more than its allocation, or activity near the wellhead that concerns the other parties. Build a dispute resolution clause into the agreement that requires mediation before any lawsuit. Mediation is faster and cheaper than court and does less damage to the neighbor relationship. If it fails, the clause can require binding arbitration or send the parties to superior court in the county where the property sits.

Do not take matters into your own hands by shutting off a neighbor’s water or blocking access to the well. Self-help remedies like these can expose you to liability for interfering with an easement, even when the other party is clearly in the wrong. Use the contractual remedies the agreement gives you: a written demand letter citing the specific provision, then the dispute resolution clause.

1
Washington State Legislature. RCW 90.44 – Regulation of Public Groundwaters
2
Washington State Department of Ecology. Groundwater Permit Exemption
3
Washington State Legislature. House Bill Report ESSB 6091
4
Kittitas County. 2 Party Shared Well Users Agreement
5
Washington State Department of Health. Private Wells Information for Owners
6
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Handbook 4000.1 – Section: Shared Wells
7
Washington State Legislature. WAC 173-160-171
8
Washington State Department of Health. Group B Water Systems
9
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 64.04.010 – Conveyances and Encumbrances
10
Cowlitz County Health and Human Services. Water Availability Checklist
11
Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.06.020