(1) A fee is hereby imposed on each well constructed in this state on or after July 1, 2005.

     (2)(a) The fee for one water well, other than a dewatering well, with a minimum top casing diameter of less than twelve inches is two hundred dollars. This fee does not apply to a ground source heat pump boring or a grounding well.

     (b) The fee for one water well, other than a dewatering well, with a minimum top casing diameter of twelve inches or greater is three hundred dollars.

     (c) The fee for a resource protection well, except for an environmental investigation well, a ground source heat pump boring, or a grounding well, is forty dollars for each well.

     (d) The fee for an environmental investigation well in which groundwater is sampled or measured is forty dollars for construction of up to four environmental investigation wells per project, ten dollars for each additional environmental investigation well constructed on a project with more than four wells. There is no fee for soil or vapor sampling purposes.

     (e) The fee for a ground source heat pump boring or a grounding well is forty dollars for construction of up to four ground source heat pump borings or grounding wells per project and ten dollars for each additional ground source heat pump boring or grounding well constructed on a project with more than four wells.

     (f) The combined fee for construction and decommissioning of a dewatering well system shall be forty dollars for each two hundred horizontal lineal feet, or portion thereof, of the dewatering well system.

     (g) The fee to decommission a water well is fifty dollars.

     (h) The fee to decommission a resource protection well, except for an environmental investigation well, is twenty dollars. There is no fee to decommission an environmental investigation well or a geotechnical soil boring.

     (i) The fee to decommission a ground source heat pump boring or a grounding well is twenty dollars.

     (3) The fees imposed by this section shall be paid at the time the notice of well construction is submitted to the department as provided by RCW 18.104.048. The department by rule may adopt procedures to permit the fees required for resource protection wells to be paid after the number of wells actually constructed has been determined. The department shall refund the amount of any fee collected for wells, borings, probes, or excavations as long as construction has not started and the department has received a refund request within one hundred eighty days from the time the department received the fee. The refund request shall be made on a form provided by the department.

[2005 c 84 § 4; 2002 c 48 § 2; 1993 c 387 § 9.]