After all the effort it takes to acquire a water well drilling licence, the last thing you want to do is lose it because of a compliance mistake you can avoid. The reality of renewing your licence in many states, however, is that you need to do more than just remember your renewal date.
Once you get your licence, you will need to keep track of your professional conduct, continuing education, and administrative or financial records such as renewal fees and surety bonds for successful renewals. Here's a closer look at what you should do.
1. Think of Renewal as a Competitive Advantage
An easy way to miss your licence renewal deadlines is to think of the entire process as an obligation you must fulfil to keep working. This makes you feel less excited about completing the required continuing education and meeting the other listed requirements. The better approach is usually to think of the renewal process as something you want to do to remain competitive, because it actually does.
When you take expertly written water well drilling license continuing education courses and engage in other forms of continuing education, it becomes quite easy to convince your employers and clients that you are greatly invested in your career. This makes it more probable that they will consider you every time an opportunity you qualify for comes up. That's a strong foundation for continued success.
2. Retain Records of Your Completed Projects
You probably weren't aware of this, but regulators often care a lot about how you handled your projects. This can include details such as when you worked on the project, the kind of materials you used, and whether the work complied with required standards. So, make sure you keep your drilling logs, construction details, formation information, casing records, completion records, and all other related information safe.
It's highly recommended to establish a system that allows you to retrieve the complete history of a job quickly and reliably. Avoid relying on memory, loose paper forms, or unorganised photographs, as these rarely give the full report of your work.
3. Take Equipment Maintenance Seriously
One of the fastest ways to encounter issues with licensing boards and other regulatory authorities is to do, or fail to do, something that causes a safety issue, since that, to these authorities, is also a compliance issue. A poorly maintained rig can easily create conditions that affect the quality of a well. Improper maintenance of drilling equipment, on the other hand, can certainly contribute to construction deficiencies.
How this works is rather straightforward: regulators care more about the well you leave behind as opposed to questions like whether your rig was working correctly throughout the project. So, make sure to build equipment inspections into your normal operating routine and keep maintenance and/or repair records. This is especially crucial for the equipment that directly affects well construction.
4. Audit Your Own Work Before Anyone Else Does It
If you ask us, one of the most effective ways to protect your drilling licence is to periodically review your work as though you were a regulator. You can, for instance, pick several recently completed wells and examine their files from start to finish.
Some of the elements you should be interested in are whether you obtained required permits, whether you completed the construction records, whether you submitted reports within the required timeframe, and so on.
Making this exercise a habit reveals small weaknesses before they land you in trouble. This is especially important for businesses experiencing quick growth, as the systems that worked flawlessly a couple of years ago might not be sufficient as additional factors get involved.
Start Working on Your Compliance Now
Keeping a water well drilling licence in good standing is ultimately a matter of designing your business in a way that makes compliance part of the work. This way, you won't have to freak out as the renewal deadlines draw near.
You can start this process today by checking out RocketCert's continuing education courses. The earlier you start, the easier it becomes!