Forms And Tools For Water Withdrawal Permit Applications

This page contains forms and tools to help guide an applicant through the water withdrawal permit process.

Submitting an Application

Applications for "New Permits and Permit Modifications" should be submitted to the Division of Environmental Permits (DEP) in the DEC region where the facility is located. Learn more about application procedures or speak with a permit administrator in a DEC Regional Office.

Forms and Guidance

Groundwater Studies

DEC regulations require that pumping test results be submitted as part of any Water Withdrawal Application involving a new or additional groundwater source.

In reviewing any such application, DEC must determine that the proposed well or wells will adequately meet the needs of the applicant and if others who may rely on the same aquifer will be adversely affected. Pumping tests must be conducted according to the DEC's Pumping Test Procedures for Water Withdrawal Permitting and reported using the Recommended Pumping Test Report Format (PDF). The testing requirements have been designed to produce accurate and complete information vital to these determinations.

Applicants are advised to submit their pumping test plans to DEC prior to conducting a test if the proposed test procedures will deviate from these procedures in a substantive way. For more information and assistance please call or email the contact on the right hand side of this page.

Unused wells can introduce a pathway for contaminants to enter groundwater. Many DEC Water Withdrawal permits contain a condition to decommission such wells.

Surface Water Studies

For Water Withdrawal applications using surface water sources the contributing watershed size must be delineated. The USGS offers a free, online Web-based Geographic Information Systems application for use in water resources planning and management, and in engineering design named StreamStats. This application makes the process of computing streamflow statistics for ungaged sites much faster, more accurate, and more consistent than previously used manual methods. It also makes streamflow statistics for gaged sites available without the need to locate, obtain, and read the publications in which they were originally provided.

Historical and current New York streamflow information can be found independent from StreamStats at the US Geological Survey Surface Water Data page.