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Committee clears bill to credential water well drillers and establish revolving fund
Summary
House Bill 18‑17 would establish credentialing and a revolving fund to support commercial water well drillers and associated workforce training; the committee passed the bill unanimously.
The House Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted to advance House Bill 18‑17, a measure to credential commercial water well drillers, create a revolving fund to support training, and set up workforce development for the drilling profession.
Representative Worthen (presenter recorded as Representative Newton adopting a PCS for Representative Worthen’s bill) told the committee the proposal would provide micro‑credentialing or training certificates for drillers to reduce contamination risks and improve well quality. He said the measure would establish a revolving fund, and the transcript includes a sponsor estimate of about $22,050,000 to seed the effort, though the bill text and precise funding mechanism were not shown in the committee record.
Committee members asked whether drillers currently must be licensed; the sponsor said drillers do have licensing requirements and that the bill focuses on adding training and credentialing pathways rather than introducing unfamiliar licensing requirements. The committee recorded a 10‑aye, 0‑nay vote to pass the bill out of committee.
The transcript does not include the finalized statutory text, details of fund capitalization, or a fiscal note; the sponsor said the fund would be a revolving fund to support credentialing and workforce development and that the proposal aims to protect groundwater quality.
