Denver County well records: what buyers should know

How deep are wells around Denver County?

How much water do wells make near Denver County?

Why Denver County's 28-foot median needs context

Of the county's records, 6,488 report total depth. The middle half run 20–43 feet, and 94% are under 100 feet. The 90th-percentile depth is 64 feet, yet the deepest recorded well reaches 2,092 feet. Those are very different drilling jobs within the same permit inventory.

Monitoring dominates these records, so the shallow middle range should not become the depth allowance in a household-well bid. Permits name Alluvial and Denver aquifers, while many use an unnamed or fractured-bedrock label. Ask the driller to identify the target formation and comparable supply wells. The relevant depth depends on that target, the site's geology and the permitted water source—not the county median alone.

A 45 gpm median is not a household supply promise

Only 116 wells report a pump yield, making this a limited subset of Denver County's permit inventory. Their median is 45.0 gpm, with the middle half spanning 8.0–200.0 gpm. That wide spread is another reason not to treat the county summary as a residential design standard.

At the low end, 5% report under 1 gpm, and 16% fall in the 1–5 gpm category. A buyer looking at a low-yield well needs a current pumping and recovery test, plus an assessment of storage and household demand. Reported pump output does not establish sustainable production or legal pumping authority. Check both the well's performance and its DWR permit conditions.

Shallow recorded water levels, but no proven countywide decline

Static water level is the depth to standing water before pumping, not the bottom of the well. Denver County has 228 records reporting this measurement. The median is 15 feet below ground, and the middle half fall between 11 and 21 feet.

The decade medians move from 13 feet in the 2010s to 16 feet in the 2020s. The later records therefore show deeper standing water, but this summary does not establish repeated measurements at the same wells. It is not enough to prove a countywide falling water table. For a purchase, compare dated measurements from the subject well and nearby wells in the same aquifer. Shallow standing water also does not mean a household supply well can stop at that depth.

Denver's permit history is largely a monitoring story

The largest listed permit decade is the 1990s, with 3,552 permits, followed by 3,018 in the 2000s. Records list 1,963 in the 2010s and 923 in the 2020s, with the newest permit dated 2025. The latest decade is incomplete, so those totals are not a clean measure of changing drilling demand.

The leading driller-field entry is Authorized (Pe, Pg), with 5,882 records; that label is not a conventional contractor name. Other leading entries are Ground Exploration Llc (Bender, Joseph T.), with 361, and Layne, Christensen Co. (Tormoehlen, David A.), with 245. These are historical record counts, not recommendations or confirmation of current services. Only 4,643 wells are recorded as constructed; a permit alone does not establish an operating well.

Budgeting a Denver County well beyond the drilled hole

The supplied cost model uses Denver Basin sedimentary bedrock and a drilling rate of $50–$70 per foot. At the recorded median depth, it puts the drilled hole at about $1,400–$2,000 and a finished well with pump, tank, trenching and electrical at about $7,400–$14,000.

Treat that as a model, not a household-well quote. Its depth assumption comes from an inventory dominated by monitoring wells. A permitted supply well targeting a different formation may require a different budget. Ask for an itemized proposal covering target depth, casing, grout, well development, testing and equipment. Confirm access requirements and which permit, site-restoration and water-treatment expenses are outside the quoted scope before comparing bids.

Environmental checks matter around Denver well sites

The mapped environmental inventory within about 10 miles includes 947 PFAS sampling/contamination sites, 211 EPA Superfund/cleanup sites and 75 historic mine features. These are screening flags, not proof that a particular well is contaminated. A sampling location is not automatically a confirmed contamination source.

Review nearby site files and have the well water tested for drinking-water suitability, with additional testing guided by local conditions. Inspect the wellhead, casing and sanitary seal. Low yield and an unsuccessful hole remain project risks that a neighboring permit cannot rule out. Where onsite wastewater is proposed and allowed, coordinate septic placement, required well separation, drainage and building excavation before fixing the site plan. Shallow groundwater can complicate that layout.

Before buying a Denver lot, verify the water path

Start with the parcel's actual jurisdiction and available utility service. A nearby Denver County permit does not establish a right to drill on your lot, and a monitoring permit does not authorize household use. Have DWR confirm the applicable permit path and allowed uses before treating a well as the planned water supply.

For an existing well, obtain its permit, construction report, pump information, water-quality results and current performance test. Near Englewood, Cherry Hills Village or Sheridan, verify county boundaries rather than assuming every nearby record belongs to Denver County. Neighboring Arapahoe County and Jefferson County can provide useful comparisons, but only where geology and well use match. Make satisfactory water documentation and site feasibility part of the purchase decision, not a task left until excavation.

Well permits by decade near Denver County

What a new well costs in Denver County

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 (43 ft) would run roughly $8,150–$15,010. 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 Denver County? 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 Denver County 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 Denver County

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Towns and areas in Denver County

Neighboring counties