Blue River, Colorado Well Depth, Yield, and Cost

How deep are wells around Blue River?

How much water do wells make near Blue River?

Blue River Well Depth: What the Mountain Ground Requires

The median permitted well depth near Blue River is 133 feet. The middle half runs from 80 to 200 feet, so a bid based on the median is only a starting point: half of the reported wells fall outside that range. The 90th-percentile depth is 282 feet, and the deepest record reaches 700 feet.

Depths cluster in the moderate range. Thirty-three percent of wells are under 100 feet, while 59% fall between 100 and 300 feet. Another 8% are between 300 and 600 feet, with no recorded wells at 600 feet or more. Most permits identify unnamed or fractured-bedrock aquifers, so granite and gneiss fractures—not a uniform sand layer—control where drilling finds water.

How Much Water a Blue River Well Can Produce

Reported pump yield has a median of 10.0 gallons per minute, with the middle half between 7.0 and 12.0 gallons per minute. That is a useful range for planning a home, but it is not a promise for a new hole. Seventy percent of reported wells produce between 5 and 15 gallons per minute, and 20% report more than 15 gallons per minute.

Ten percent fall between 1 and 5 gallons per minute, while no recorded wells are listed under 1 gallon per minute. Ask for the permitted use, the pumping test method, and any storage-tank design. A household well may legally be limited by its permit, and the general exempt-well pumping limit is 35 gallons per minute; that limit does not mean the aquifer will deliver that amount.

Blue River Water Levels and the Long Record

Among the 306 wells reporting static water level, the median depth to water is 80 feet below the surface. The middle half is 50 to 120 feet. That matters when a contractor sizes the pump and estimates the lift from the standing water level to the pressure system.

The decade series does not show a sustained decline in this record. Median depth to water was 80 feet in the 1970s, 80 feet in the 1980s, 71 feet in the 1990s, 80 feet in the 2000s, 80 feet in the 2010s, and 80 feet in the 2020s. These are measured-well medians, not a site-specific guarantee. Seasonal conditions, pumping nearby, and the fracture connected to your well can still produce a different result.

Who Has Drilled Near Blue River, and When

Permit activity is spread across decades, with the largest period in the records occurring during the 1990s, when 968 permits were issued. The record shows 726 permits from the 2000s, 371 from the 2010s, and 293 from the 2020s. The newest permit year is 2026, so this is not only an older well district.

The most active drillers in the records are Golden Eagle Drilling Corporation, Shelton, Joe Wayne, with 728 records; Buena Vista Drilling, Shelton, William L, with 541; and Arrow Drilling Co., Berglund, Paul R., with 287. These counts describe permit records, not current availability, workmanship, or a recommendation. Confirm licensing, insurance, references, and the proposed construction details before hiring.

What a New Blue River Well May Cost

Blue River’s fractured mountain bedrock is the main cost driver. The local drilling model uses $65 to $100 per foot. At the 133-foot median depth, the drilled hole works out to about $8,600 to $13,300.

A finished system—including the pump, pressure tank, trenching, and electrical—is modeled at about $14,600 to $25,300 at that median depth. Treat those figures as planning numbers, not a fixed proposal. A deeper hole, difficult access, extra casing or grout, longer trench runs, difficult electrical work, or a failed hole can change the final bill. Have the bid state what happens if the driller must continue beyond the assumed depth or cannot establish an adequate supply.

Blue River Risks: Water Quality, Yield, and Building Limits

The local map includes 9 PFAS sampling or contamination sites, 9 EPA Superfund or cleanup sites, and 1,521 historic mine features within about 10 miles. Those mapped sites do not prove contamination at a particular parcel, but they justify a site-specific water test and a review of nearby mine and cleanup records. Test for the contaminants relevant to the property’s history and location.

Fractured rock can produce a strong well next door and a weak or dry hole on the same slope. Before building, confirm the permit’s household use, well location, septic separation, and available space for the drainfield. An exempt household-use well is not a substitute for checking water rights; an over-appropriated basin may require an augmentation plan for some uses.

Buying or Building on a Blue River Lot

Start with the DWR permit, construction report, pump-yield record, and static-water measurement for the actual property. The nearby statistics are encouraging on yield, but only 1,223 wells report a pump yield and only 306 report a static water level, so the database is incomplete. Ask the seller for recent production, treatment, repair, and water-quality records.

Have a driller review access for a rig, likely casing and grout, the proposed well location, and the cost of a deeper search. Compare several nearby wells, especially around Breckenridge, Frisco, and Dillon, without assuming they match your lot. For a new home, coordinate the well, septic system, driveway, electrical service, storage, and building envelope before closing. A well that works on paper still needs a practical site plan.

Well permits by decade near Blue River

What a new well costs in Blue River, 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 (200 ft) would run roughly $19,000–$32,000. 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 Blue River? 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 Blue River 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 Blue River

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

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