Legislation:The activities of well driller, well digger and pump installer contractors fall under the Well Construction Regulations pursuant to the Environment Act. Persons who carry out activities as well drillers, well diggers or pump installers must be certified by Nova Scotia Environment. Quick links to items on the Web page:
Nova Scotia Environment has released updated Well Construction Regulations (N.S. Reg. 382/2007) on 07 September 2007. These Regulations are available on the Nova Scotia Environment website.
Nova Scotia Environment has distributed information packages to all certified well drillers, well diggers, and pump installers, and in conjunction with NSGWA, have in May 2008 provided a series of information sessions at a number of locations across the Province. For more information, please contact your local Nova Scotia Environment office or call 1-877-9-ENVIRO. (Back to top) The Nova Scotia Ground Water Association has on 01 January 2004 entered into a memorandum of understanding with Nova Scotia Environment respecting "the training, education, and upgrading of Certified Well Drillers, Certified Well Diggers, and Certified Pump Installers, the delivery of information to other groundwater service stakeholders and the general public and to provide funding for such activities." This agreement was made under the terms of the Well Construction Regulations (N.S. Reg . 58/95) in force at that time. A copy of the MOU (in .pdf format) is available here.
Funding for activities under this MOU is obtained by Nova Scotia Environment by them having doubled the fee rates charged to industry practitioners to obtain certifications of qualification. As such, all activities under the MOU are directly funded by the Nova Scotia groundwater industry practitioners. Nova Scotia Environment has agreed to "pay up to 50% per year of any additional Certificate of Qualification fee money collected by the Department after January 1, 2004 to the Society" (the Nova Scotia Ground Water Association). The funding provided to NSGWA under the MOU has resulted in, among several other things, the creation of this Web site, the development of the NSGWA newsletter, our participation at various public functions including the Halifax Ideal Home Show, plus the delivery of technical seminars that are now a normal part of all of our association meetings. It is now the main source of funding for the CEP. While the full 50% was typically not received from Nova Scotia Environment initially, the full 50% of the certificate of qualification fee money collected made available to NSGWA for the start of the continuing education program (CEP, see details below). (Back to top) The September 2007 Well Construction Regulations require that any well driller, well digger or pump installer operating in Nova Scotia participate in and successfully complete a continuing education program in order to apply to renew certificates of qualification.
The NSGWA agreed in a letter to Nova Scotia Environment dated 15 December 2007 to undertake the development of the CEP on behalf of the Department as a voluntary extension to the January 2004 MOU on provision that 100% of any additional certificate of qualification fees collected by the Department become available for that purpose. In response, and due to the accounting procedures used by Government, Nova Scotia Environment has for the 2006/07 fiscal period agreed to pay 50% of all additional certificate of qualification fees collected, plus additional seed money for the CEP such that the total initial funding for the CEP was 100% of the additional fees collected. We anticipate that we will continue to receive the full 100% of all additional certificate of qualification fee money collected under the MOU if the CEP is to succeed into the future. Intent of the continuing education program: The CEP Guiding Document, which had been worked on cooperatively with Nova Scotia Environment during the preceding two years, and which was accepted by the Department in the summer of 2007 pending some minor changes, was brought to our January 2008 annual general meeting for members to vote on for acceptance. The CEP committee was created that same day. The CEP is intended to apply equally to Certified Well Drillers, Well Diggers, and Pump Installers, whether or not they are members of the NSGWA, to satisfy the requirements of Section 10 of the Well Construction Regulations (382/2007) under the Nova Scotia Environment Act. The CEP may include, but is not limited to, such educational items as: relevant legislation, record keeping, well construction and pump installation techniques, geology and groundwater theory, resource protection, ground-source thermal applications, work safety, equipment and materials handling and maintenance, and others relating to the various trade or sub-trade activities undertaken in the normal course of well construction and pump installation. The CEP is still very much in its infancy: currently, work has been completed and/or is underway primarily to introduce and announce the program and new legislation to industry – through the NSGWA newsletter that we have begun to distribute Province-wide for this purpose, and through special meetings that we have managed. We have been maintaining a database of all certified persons who have participated in either normal NSGWA activities or outside special meetings. Through the CEP Committee, we are also actively involved in the development of a database and the development/delivery of forms for certified persons to register points for continuing education activities undertaken outside of NSGWA, as well as the ones described above. We have been actively seeking various educational resources, both local and foreign, with which the NSGWA and/or Nova Scotia Environment may wish to partner; materials that the NSGWA may be able obtain to present directly to industry, and facilitators to deliver those resources. The CEP is intended to continue to evolve and improve over time. Roles of the CEP Committee: The primary roles of the CEP committee are to:
Each certified person must accumulate a minimum of 15 point per year, and a minimum of 100 points within the latest 4 year period to maintain their certification. Nova Scotia Environment will at the time of certificate renewal review the total number of points accumulated by each individual applying for certificate renewal. Where an individual may have been issued a certificate of qualification under more than one of the disciplines as Well Driller, Well Digger or Pump Installer, that person must accumulate the necessary number of points for each individual discipline. However, while some courses may be unique to certain disciplines, where courses or training sessions may be multidisciplinary in nature, then points may be assigned and offered for each of the relevant disciplines for which that person is certified. In other words, if person certified as a well driller and a pump installer takes a course worth 6 points that is relevant to both discipline, then that person will receive 6 points towards their well driller certificate, plus 6 points towards their pump installer certificate. It is the responsibility of each person registered under this program to track their own attendance at courses and/or other activities relating to continuing education that may provide them with points under this program. Those activities are to be reported by prescribed cut off dates and a CEP attendance form, which will be signed by the facilitator/presenter of any course or activity sponsored by this program. For courses or activities which may not yet be registered to provided points and as included in the CEP points summary, it is the responsibility of each qualified person registered under this program to present the details of such activity on the prescribed form for review and consideration by the CEP committee. Through the NSGWA secretary's involvement on the CEP committee, the NSGWA will maintain a record of continuing education points for all certified well drillers, well diggers and pump installers operating in Nova Scotia. Points accumulation startup under the new regulation: The the purpose of points accumulation, the continuing education program under the new well construction regulations is deemed to have commenced on 01 January 2008. Any person holding a certificate or qualification as a well driller, well digger or pump installer as of that date is considered to be grandfathered as relates to the continuing education requirments for certification. At the commencement of the program on January 2008, ALL persons holding a Certificate of Qualification in Well Digging, Well Drilling or Pump Installers were considered to have 100 points (25 for each year 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007). On January 1, 2009, the points for 2004 drop off and then the points obtained for 2008 are added to arrive at a now total for the last 4 years. This will continue in each subsequent year, with only the last 4 years counting. If a person does not have a total of 100 points OR did not acquire 15 points in the last year, then NSE WILL send a letter to that person advising them that (s)he has not achieved the necessary qualifications and that (s)he has one year to bring their requirements for Certification up to standards, or risk losing their Certification of Qualification in their respective disciplines. (Back to top) Continuing Education Program documents and forms: Click on any of the following to download CEP documents and forms in .pdf format:
By email at:
nsgwa@ns.aliantzinc.ca
By regular mail at:
#3, 644 Portland Street, Suite 417
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2W 2M3 Please note that if you have participated in any of the following activities, points have already been placed in the database for you and you need not complete a points registration form:
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