Expired License and a Borrowed Number Before Winter
You own a small drilling company. Your Nebraska water well contractor license expired 45 days ago because you did not complete the required continuing education. You have a signed contract to drill a 120-foot, 6-inch PVC domestic well for a farmstead; the customer's current well is failing and they want water before winter. Your crew and rig are ready, and your employee has eight years of experience. A competing licensed contractor offers to let you 'work under his license' for a 10% fee and to file the well log in his name. The customer says the neighbor's driller can wait until spring but prefers you. Your employee says he can run the rig and you can 'straighten out the paperwork later.' The well site is 80 feet from a septic tank and 25 feet from the property line.
1. Evaluate the competitor's offer to let you work under his license and file the log in his name. What licensing violations and practical risks does it create?
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The offer is not a legal cure. A Nebraska water well contractor license is issued to a specific person or entity and is not transferable. Allowing another contractor to perform the work while the licensed contractor merely lends a number is unlicensed practice and can be treated as a false or misleading well log. The licensed contractor who signs would be certifying work he did not supervise, and you would still be making the construction decisions. Practical risks include: the log becomes evidence against both parties; the customer's well may be subject to enforcement; insurance may deny coverage for unlicensed work; and the competitor could control the record. Paying 10% does not create a supervision relationship that satisfies the licensing rules. Your employee's experience does not cure your expired license because the license belongs to you, not the employee. Do not start drilling on this arrangement.
2. What compliant options do you have if the customer needs water before winter, and what should you tell the customer?
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Compliant options are: (1) complete the required continuing education and renew before mobilizing, and drill only after the license is active; (2) decline the job and refer the customer to a properly licensed contractor, with a written scope and no use of your name; or (3) limit work to any scope for which you hold a separate active license, such as pump installation if that license is current. A subcontract can be lawful only if the licensed contractor actually supervises and controls the well construction, signs the log, and carries the contract; a 10% paperwork fee is not enough. Tell the customer the truth: drilling without an active license exposes them to a well that may not be accepted, delays registration, and creates liability. Offer a written schedule for renewal; do not accept a deposit for unlicensed work.
3. When you do drill, what construction and documentation standards must the well meet regardless of the licensing issue?
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Even after licensing is fixed, the well must meet Nebraska well construction standards: proper casing diameter and wall thickness for depth, approved casing material, annular grout or seal to the required depth, a sanitary well cap, proper screen or slot size for the formation, development, disinfection, and a yield and drawdown test. The well must be sited away from contamination sources and property lines as required. An 80-foot separation from a septic tank and 25 feet from a property line should be checked against the current isolation distances before drilling. You must keep a driller's log with formation, casing, grout, screen, static and pumping levels, yield, and disinfection, and submit the registration to NeDNR within the required time, generally 30 days after completion. A license does not excuse poor construction; the log and registration are the record that the standards were met.