What to Expect From a Well in Bailey

How deep are wells around Bailey?

How much water do wells make near Bailey?

Why Bailey Drilling Bids Need Room for Depth

Across 5,021 wells reporting depth, Bailey's median is 300 ft. The middle half falls between 180-480 ft, and the 90th percentile reaches 680 ft. A bid based only on the median leaves a meaningful risk of additional footage.

The ground here is fractured mountain bedrock, including granite and gneiss. Water comes through fractures rather than a continuous, evenly productive layer. Permits overwhelmingly identify unnamed or fractured-bedrock aquifers; Denver Basin aquifer wells account for 0% of this dataset.

Nearby Pine and Conifer provide useful regional context, but the closest well logs are better bidding references. Ask the driller how additional footage, casing and grout are charged if usable fractures are deeper than expected.

A Bailey Well's Yield Matters as Much as Its Depth

The median reported pump yield is 5.0 gpm, with the middle half between 2.0-7.0 gpm. Those figures come from 2,768 wells reporting yield, not every permit in the area. They describe recorded performance, not a guarantee of what a well will deliver today.

For a buyer, the important caution is that 9% report less than 1 gpm. A low-producing well may need storage and careful demand management, and deeper drilling does not automatically solve the problem.

Have an existing well tested for sustained production and recovery. Household demand arrives in bursts, so review the pump, storage and well performance together rather than treating a reported yield as a complete water-supply assessment.

Bailey Water Levels Do Not Show a Steady Decline

Static water level is the depth to standing water when the well is not pumping. It is not the drilled depth. Among 302 reporting wells around Bailey, the median is 80 ft below ground, with a middle half of 42-200 ft.

Decade medians move from 54 ft in the 1970s to 40 ft in the 1980s, 64 ft in the 1990s, 52 ft in the 2000s, 132 ft in the 2010s and 80 ft in the 2020s. That is not a steady downward trend.

These measurements also are not repeated readings from the same wells. They cannot establish property-specific decline. For a purchase, current static and pumping levels, recovery testing and any older measurements from that well are more useful.

Bailey's Well Records Reflect Decades of Mountain Building

The largest permit decade in the Bailey records was the 1990s, with 1,873 permits, followed by the 1970s with 1,646. Records include 338 permits from the 2010s and 196 from the 2020s, with the newest permit dated 2025. The current decade is incomplete, and permit totals should not be treated as completed-well totals.

The most active drillers listed are Living Water Systems Inc. (Goble, Robert), with 1,025 records; Stan'S Drilling (Stansbury, Larry), with 690; and Ernie'S Mountain Drilling Inc. (Malovich, Ernest J), with 388. These are historical record counts, not confirmation of current availability.

Domestic/household use represents 94% of permits. Still, check the actual permit: a household-use authorization does not automatically allow outdoor watering or livestock.

Budgeting a Finished Well on a Bailey Lot

For Bailey's fractured granite and gneiss, the supplied drilling model uses $65-$100 per foot. At the 300 ft median depth, that puts the drilled hole at about $19,500-$30,000. A finished well with pump, tank, trenching and electrical is modeled at $25,500-$42,000.

Those are planning figures, not a parcel-specific quote. The local 180-480 ft middle-half depth range is a reason to compare footage assumptions before comparing bottom-line prices.

Request a written scope showing casing, grout, testing, pump equipment and utility connections. On a mountain lot, rig access and the route from the well to the house also deserve an on-site review. Keep driveway, septic and broader site-development work clearly separated from the well estimate.

Check Bailey Water Quality and Low-Yield Risk Separately

Environmental mapping within about 10 miles identifies 1 PFAS sampling/contamination site, 17 historic mine features and 2 EPA Superfund/cleanup sites. These are screening flags, not evidence that a particular Bailey well is contaminated. Their mapped radius is also broader than the well-statistics area.

Before closing, obtain laboratory water testing and use nearby site information to decide whether additional testing is appropriate. Review casing condition, the well cap, surface drainage and the relationship between the well and septic system.

Water quality and water quantity are separate questions. The 9% share reporting under 1 gpm makes production testing important even when water tests clean. Fractured rock also carries dry-hole risk; ask how unsuccessful drilling would be handled before work starts.

Before You Buy or Build Near Bailey

Start with the parcel's DWR permit and available construction records. Confirm that the well serves the property being sold and that its permitted uses match your plans. An existing permit is not proof of a working water supply, and a new lot needs permit feasibility checked before you commit to construction.

Compare neighboring depths and yields, but do not assume a successful well in Pine or Brook Forest predicts the result on your lot. Local fractures can change over short distances.

Have the driller and site contractor review rig access, the house location, septic layout and utility routes together. For an existing home, make satisfactory production testing, water-quality results and permit review part of the purchase decision rather than work left until after closing.

Well permits by decade near Bailey

What a new well costs in Bailey, CO

How this is built: the median permitted depth here times the per-foot range for this ground, plus the normal system costs. A lot at the 75th-percentile depth (480 ft) would run roughly $37,200–$60,000. See the full Colorado well cost guide.

Environmental sites mapped within about 10 miles

Counts come from EPA, USGS and state datasets layered on the Colorado Well Finder map. A count is not a verdict on any one well; it tells you what to test for.

Buying land near Bailey? Know what it costs to build before you buy the dirt.

A listing photo can't tell you whether a lot is a dream or a money pit. Two parcels near Bailey can carry the same asking price while one needs an $80,000 driveway and a $45,000 engineered septic the other doesn't. The well numbers on this page are the start of that answer. A Tri-Lakes Site Feasibility Report is the rest of it: a licensed general contractor, excavator and septic installer reads the parcel the way we would if we were about to build on it, and puts the real cost in writing before your money is committed.

Spend a little to know. Or gamble a lot to guess. Realtors sell the view and inspectors look at houses that already exist. We're the people who'd build it, so we catch what quietly turns a "great deal" into a budget disaster: bad access, buried rock, steep grade, soil that won't pass for a normal septic, water that's a fortune to reach. And if the lot is good, you've already got a builder ready to do the work, driveway to drywall.

• Instant Online Report, $99 — type the address and get a buildability read on the spot: parcel, terrain and slope, soil and septic outlook. Cheap enough to run on every lot you're shopping.
• Desktop Report, $500 — a contractor's from-the-desk feasibility read: Regulation 43 and county code, GIS parcel data, terrain, flood and drainage, soil and septic viability, setbacks and buildable envelope, nearby well depths from our 591,000-well database, the likely driveway route, and a preliminary site-development cost breakdown.
• On-Site Report, $2,000 — everything above, then boots and a drone on the actual ground: house pad and septic zone located, access and winter conditions checked, rock and soil observed in person, a 15 to 20 page written opinion you can hand a lender or seller. Credited toward your project if you build with us.

Under contract, comparing parcels, or a realtor with a rural listing whose buyers keep asking "what will it cost to build here?" This is the due-diligence step almost everyone skips, and the one that saves the most.

Common questions about wells in Bailey

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All wells in Park County — county-wide depth, yield and cost figures.

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