I don't think you can do it yourself. And I think it's pretty expensive depending on how deep they have to dig. It's one of those things that could take a few years to recoup the cost.

Also groundwater is not unlimited ... water you take from the ground can impact the supply and the well may run dry.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google results for well drilling in atlanta

You must be licensed to drill a well in Georgia. Ask for their number and look it up under Georgia Secretary of State.
Permits depend on the county.
They charge by the foot. Avg. is $12-18 per ft. Some include the casings(the pipe that holds the well open). Plus the pump and electrical and plumbing.
My estimates have been $10,000 and up. The companies I talked to say it needs to be anywhere from 200-500 ft deep and could go deeper.
No guarantee they will find water but you pay anyway.
All the links to the Well Drillers Assn. below did not seem to work for me. Like Find a Driller. I used Kudzu.com and yellow pages.
Most are backed up 3 months. I have been on the list since Feb. and still waiting. Was supposed to start last week. It depends how how fast the well they are on goes. And the weather.
The trucks are HUGE and heavy. We had to extend our driveway and add more gravel, remove several Azealas and other shrubs. Provide our own silt fence and hay. It is messy and splashes ground rock and water everywhere.
There are several DIY kits on the web. Range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars.
A dug well or shallow well will dry up in Ga. Even a 500 hundred ft deep well can dry up in this drought.
This site has pictures.
http://www.allpurposewelldrilling.com/drillinginfo.html
I am not endorsing them or anyone else. They all pretty much will not commit to anything. As to time or cost.

Here is a link that might be useful: Well Drillers Association

Back in the 80s we had the thought of having a well drilled here in our yard in Roswell. We think it was a Fulton County department we had to get in touch with- environmental or health- to come talk to us about it. Now, we have an acre and a half but by the time all the restrictions were applied there was a very small place in the front yard where the drilling could take place. By small, I mean no larger than a 7 or 8 foot square spot. We decided against the drilling because if it came up dry, there was no place to move to. I sure wish now that we had gone ahead and tried.

The restrictions were distance from our drain field (we have a septic tank), distance from neighbor's septic fields, distance from lot lines, distance from the road, etc.

Yo all:

Thanks a lot for the information. It sounds complicated... and expensive. I found a kind of "new tech" way on the net to drill the well. I am not sure how reliable and true this method is, but it's cheap and easy..

Here is the link: http://howtodrillawell.com/
What do you think?

Cheer,
Alpharetta

You want to drill a WELL?

Well, oh well
boy oh boy
me oh my!

You're out of luck. OH WELL!

hahahaha

JK, You're better off getting a tank or several rain barrells. THey are right about the cost. AND if you try it yourself you will probably give up long before hitting water. AND if you hit water you could run into all sorts of legal guidlines. AND, well, the list get's longer... I think.

WELL
I gotta go
BE WELL

So you have to use WATER to get WATER based on that website. The problem now is that you won't get permission to use the water to drill the well - that would be an outside use of water against the current restrictions.

I had started inquiring about this locally (Fulton County) during last year's drought, only to have several different folks (drillers and city workers alike) that watering restrictions are applied to the actual water table itself and NOT just city water. Effectively, even if you have a well, you are not exempt from watering ban.

In my case, the city can't say jack to me if we use rain barrels, so this is what we're going to do rather than drilling a well.

Just something to think about ...

The well company brings their own water truck as shown in the pictures. It is recycled water.
I was told just to post a sign in the yard that I use well water and I would be OK.
I have 15 rainbarrels. And am getting a 1200 gal. storage tank. But if the rain doesn't fill the tank I can fill it from the well. It takes a recovery period for the water to build up to pressure so you can't pump it all at once.
I have a pool, pond and large greenhouse and 3000 hostas plus ferns and tropicals and 2 acres.
15 rains barrels doesn't quite go far enough.
Many years before the drought.

cactusfreak, I was commenting on the website with the "do it yourself" method. Certainly if a company comes out to do work that requires water, they are authorized because it is part of their business.

3000 hostas ... wow. You must also have some elaborate deer protection?