Fairplay, Colorado Well Depth, Yield, and Cost Guide

How deep are wells around Fairplay?

How much water do wells make near Fairplay?

Fairplay well depth and the mountain ground below

The median recorded well depth around Fairplay is 170 feet. The middle half runs from 120 to 220 feet, meaning many ordinary bids should fall in that range, although the spread is wide. The 90th percentile is 300 feet, and the deepest well on record reaches 752 feet.

Depth mix gives a practical picture: 14% of wells are under 100 feet, 75% are between 100 and 300 feet, and 11% are between 300 and 600 feet. No recorded wells fall in the 600-plus-foot category. These are fractured mountain formations, mainly granite and gneiss. A driller may need to keep going when a shallow fracture does not provide enough water, so a bid should explain the per-foot rate and what happens if the target depth is exceeded.

What Fairplay wells produce

Among the 1,000 wells reporting a pump yield, the median is 8.0 gallons per minute. The middle half produces 5.0 to 11.0 gallons per minute. That is a workable range for many domestic homes, but a pump test and storage design still matter because reported yield is not the same as unlimited daily supply.

The local records show 0% under 1 gallon per minute, 11% from 1 to 5 gallons per minute, 74% from 5 to 15 gallons per minute, and 15% above 15 gallons per minute. A buyer should not treat the median as a promise for a specific lot. Ask for the well construction report, pumping information, and any water-quality results. Household-use exempt wells are generally subject to Colorado's 35-gallon-per-minute pumping limit, along with the limits written on the permit.

Water levels around Fairplay and what the record suggests

The median reported static water level is 90 feet below the surface, with the middle half from 58 to 130 feet. That measurement is the depth to water while the well is at rest, not the level during pumping. Pump placement, pressure-tank settings, and available storage should be designed from the actual well report rather than the area median.

The decade figures show a change in the available measurements: the median was 80 feet below surface in the 2010s and 100 feet in the 2020s. That is a deeper reported water level in the newer decade, but only 209 wells report static water levels, and the records do not establish a cause or prove a uniform decline across Fairplay. Have the well tested under pumping conditions before relying on it for a new home.

Fairplay permit history and the drillers in the record

Fairplay has a long permit history. Records show 2 permits in the 1950s, 9 in the 1960s, 171 in the 1970s, 242 in the 1980s, 590 in the 1990s, 558 in the 2000s, 217 in the 2010s, and 201 in the 2020s. The newest permit year is 2025. Domestic or household use accounts for 90% of the listed use mix; stock is 4%, irrigation is 0%, and monitoring is 6%.

Allen Drilling & Excavating Co., Inc. (Allen, Jack R.) appears most often, with 757 records. Whitewater Drilling Inc (Benkufski, John D.) appears on 157, and Five Star Inc. (Werner, Peter S.) on 153. These records show who has worked in the area, not who is available or best for a particular lot. Confirm current licensing, insurance, scheduling, and the exact scope of a written proposal.

A Fairplay well drilling budget

For fractured mountain bedrock around Fairplay, the drilling model uses a typical rate of $65 to $100 per foot. At the 170-foot median depth, the drilled hole works out to about $11,000 to $17,000. That is only the hole. A finished system with a pump, pressure tank, trenching, and electrical is estimated at about $17,000 to $29,000.

Actual bids can change with access, casing and grout requirements, terrain, pump depth, power availability, and the amount of rock excavation needed for utilities. Ask whether the proposal includes mobilization, drilling, casing, grout, development, testing, pump equipment, electrical work, trenching, and permits. A low per-foot quote may not be the low installed price if several of those items are separate.

Risks to check before building near Fairplay

Fractured granite and gneiss can be unpredictable. A neighboring well may be deep and productive while a nearby hole finds a different fracture pattern. The records show 8 PFAS sampling or contamination sites, 840 historic mine features, and 4 EPA Superfund or cleanup sites 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 mining and environmental history.

Low yield, a dry hole, poor casing or grout, and inadequate pump testing are separate concerns. Confirm the well permit and construction report with Colorado DWR. Check septic setbacks, soil and slope conditions, driveway access, utility trench routes, and the intended household use before closing. In an over-appropriated basin, an augmentation plan may be needed for some new uses; the permit and county or water-court requirements control.

Buying or building on a Fairplay lot

Start with the exact parcel, then compare its well record with records near Alma, Como, Jefferson, Blue River, Leadville, and Leadville North. Those nearby areas can provide useful local context, but Fairplay's fractured-bedrock conditions make the immediate neighbors more valuable than a broad regional average.

For an existing home, obtain the permit, construction report, pump information, water-quality results, and maintenance history. Have the well flow and pressure tested, and verify that the septic system matches the permitted use. For vacant land, get a driller's site review and a written drilling budget before treating the parcel as buildable. Confirm access for a rig, room for the well and septic system, electrical service, and the water right or permit conditions that apply to the planned home.

Well permits by decade near Fairplay

What a new well costs in Fairplay, 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 (220 ft) would run roughly $20,300–$34,000. 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 Fairplay? 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 Fairplay 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 Fairplay

Keep researching

More in Park County

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

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