What to Expect From a Well in Conifer

How deep are wells around Conifer?

How much water do wells make near Conifer?

A Conifer Drilling Bid Needs Room for Bedrock Depth

The median depth is 302 feet among 6,566 wells reporting depth. The middle half fall between 190 and 480 feet. For a buyer, that is a broad estimating range: a bid built around the median needs a clear per-foot price if drilling continues deeper.

Conifer's granite and gneiss hold water in fractures rather than a uniform sand layer. A driller may pass through substantial rock before finding useful water-bearing openings. The 90th-percentile depth is 650 feet, and 15% of reported wells are 600 feet or deeper.

Compare nearby completed wells around your actual parcel, not just the Conifer average. Ask bidders how additional depth, casing and grouting will be priced, and how they decide when to stop.

What a 5.0 Gpm Well Means for a Conifer Home

Reported pump yields center on 5.0 gpm, with the middle half between 2.6 and 8.0 gpm. Those figures come from 3,371 records, not every permitted well. A permit-record yield is a useful clue, but it is not proof of current sustained output.

At the low end, 4% report less than 1 gpm. That share is not a dry-hole rate, but it shows why a buyer should not assume ordinary household demand can be met without storage or careful system design. Another 39% fall in the 1–5 gpm category.

Before closing, arrange a pumping and recovery test. Have the contractor explain how the measured supply, pump setting and any storage system will handle household peaks without repeatedly drawing the well down.

Conifer Water Levels Do Not Show a Steady Decline

Static water level is the depth to resting water, not the bottom of the well. Among 387 reporting records, the median is 73 feet below ground, with the middle half between 35 and 160 feet. A deep drilled hole can therefore have water standing much closer to the surface.

The decade medians are uneven: 41 feet in the 1960s, 57 in the 1970s, 42 in the 1980s, 150 in the 1990s, 120 in the 2000s, 91 in the 2010s and 100 in the 2020s.

That series does not establish a steadily dropping water table. These are grouped measurements, not repeated readings from a fixed set of wells. For a particular Conifer property, its own water-level and pumping history is more useful.

Conifer's Permit History Points to an Aging Well Inventory

The busiest permitting decade in these records was the 1970s, with 2,656 permits. The 1980s added 1,506 and the 1990s added 1,917. More recent totals are lower: 396 in the 2010s and 254 in the 2020s, with the newest permit dated 2025. The latest decade is incomplete, so those totals are not directly comparable.

The most active drillers in the historical records are Living Water Systems Inc. (Goble, Robert), with 831; Aspen Drilling Company Inc (Beery, Leroy J.), with 745; and Walton, with 725. These are historical record counts, not confirmation of current availability.

Domestic/household use accounts for 93% of permits. On an older property, match the permit and construction report to the actual well, then investigate pump replacements, repairs and abandonment records.

Budgeting a Finished Bedrock Well in Conifer

The local cost model uses $65–$100 per foot for drilling fractured mountain bedrock. At the 302-foot median depth, that puts the drilled hole at about $19,600–$30,200. The modeled finished well, including pump, tank, trenching and electrical, is about $25,600–$42,200.

Treat those figures as a planning allowance rather than a parcel-specific quote. The 190–480-foot middle depth range means geology can change the drilling bill substantially before the water system is installed.

Ask for a written scope covering casing, grout, testing and completion work. Have the contractor inspect rig access and the route to the house. Rock excavation, difficult access and a complicated utility route can change the job; confirm what the quoted price includes rather than assuming everything is covered.

Check Conifer Water Quality Separately From Well Output

Within about 10 miles, the mapped inventory includes 17 PFAS sampling/contamination sites, 33 historic mine features and 51 EPA Superfund/cleanup sites. Those counts do not establish that a particular well is contaminated. A sampling location is not necessarily a confirmed contamination source, and proximity alone does not show a groundwater connection.

Order laboratory testing for bacteria and basic drinking-water chemistry, then discuss additional testing with local health officials based on the parcel's setting and nearby site records. Inspect the well cap, casing and surface drainage, too.

Low yield and unsuccessful drilling are separate risks from water quality. Coordinate the proposed well, septic system, house and driveway before clearing or excavation so sanitary setbacks and service access are workable.

Before Buying a Lot Around Conifer or Aspen Park

Start with the parcel, then work outward through neighboring records. Aspen Park and Pine offer nearby context; Brook Forest, Evergreen, Indian Hills and Upper Bear Creek are useful regional comparisons, but their wells should not substitute for evidence beside your lot. Fractured-rock conditions can change over short distances.

Verify the DWR permit's allowed uses before assuming the well can serve livestock, outdoor watering or another dwelling. A household-use permit does not automatically authorize those uses. Where applicable, additional uses may require a different water-right arrangement or augmentation.

For an existing home, obtain construction records, current yield testing and water-quality results. For vacant land, have drilling access, septic feasibility, building placement and utility trenching reviewed together before committing to a site plan.

Well permits by decade near Conifer

What a new well costs in Conifer, 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 Conifer? 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 Conifer 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 Conifer

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More in Jefferson County

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

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