What Laporte Wells Are Really Like

How deep are wells around Laporte?

How much water do wells make near Laporte?

Laporte Well Depth Depends on the Ground Under the Lot

Among wells with reported depths, the median is 40 feet. The middle half falls between 21 and 118 feet, while 72% are under 100 feet. Another 16% are 100 to 300 feet, 9% are 300 to 600 feet, and 4% are deeper than 600 feet. The range is not a typo: the deepest recorded well is 2,340 feet.

Most permits name an unnamed or fractured-bedrock aquifer, with 2,027 wells in that category. Fractured granite and gneiss can produce water through separate cracks, so two neighboring lots may require very different drilling approaches. For a bid, treat 40 feet as a statistical midpoint, not a guaranteed target. Ask the driller to explain the likely casing, grout, access, and extra-footage charges if the first water-bearing fracture is deeper.

What Laporte Wells Produce for Household Use

Reported well yields have a median of 8.2 gallons per minute, with the middle half between 5.0 and 13.8 gallons per minute. The largest group, 65%, produces between 5 and 15 gallons per minute. A further 21% report more than 15 gallons per minute, while 10% fall between 1 and 5 gallons per minute and 4% report under 1 gallon per minute.

Only 191 wells in the records report a pump yield, so the yield numbers describe reported wells rather than every permit. A low-yield result is not automatically unusable, because storage and household demand affect how a system performs. Still, a buyer should request the well construction and production records, confirm the legal use of the permit, and have the proposed pump and pressure-tank setup sized to the actual well.

Laporte Water Levels Are Shallow in the Reported Records

Reported static water levels are relatively shallow: the median depth to water is 13 feet, and the middle half is 9 to 26 feet below the surface. Only 78 wells report a static water level, so these figures are useful local context rather than a guarantee for an untested parcel.

The decade comparison shows a median of 11 feet below surface in the 2010s and 13 feet in the 2020s. That is a deeper recent median, but the limited reporting means it should not be treated as proof of a broad, dropping water table. Water levels can vary with location, season, pumping, and measurement conditions. Ask for the date and method of any water-level measurement before using it to plan a pump, basement, or excavation.

Laporte Has a Long Permit and Drilling Record

Colorado DWR records contain 2,331 permitted wells within five miles of Laporte, including 1,309 recorded as constructed. Permits were issued across every decade from the 1950s through the 2020s, with the busiest period in the 2010s at 422 permits. The newest permit year in the local records is 2025.

The records list Authorized (Pe, Pg) most often, with 388 wells, followed by Schott Bros. Drilling (Schott, Carl) with 156 and High Desert Irrigation LLC (Hersh, Larry) with 85. Those names show local permit history, not a recommendation or proof that a driller is available for a new job. Before hiring, verify current licensing, insurance, scope, and who will handle the DWR permit and construction report.

A Laporte Well Starts Cheap on Paper and Costs More Finished

Laporte drilling is modeled as fractured mountain bedrock, including granite and gneiss, at $65 to $100 per foot. At the local median depth of 40 feet, the drilled hole works out to about $2,600 to $4,000. That is only the hole, not a complete operating water system.

A finished well with pump, tank, trenching, and electrical is modeled at about $8,600 to $16,000 at that median depth. A written bid should separate drilling, casing and grout, pump equipment, pressure tank, electrical work, trenching, water testing, permit work, and any difficult-access charges. Because the deepest local record is 2,340 feet and fractured rock is unpredictable, ask how the price changes if the driller must continue below the planned depth or the first hole does not produce enough water.

Check Water Quality, Yield, Septic Space, and Building Risk

Low yield and dry-hole risk deserve direct questions in fractured bedrock. The local records include 4% of reported yields under 1 gallon per minute, and the small number of yield reports means a buyer should not rely on a neighborhood average alone. A pump test, construction report, and water-quality test are more useful than a verbal assurance that a nearby home has water.

Environmental review also matters. Within about ten miles, the mapped records include 67 PFAS sampling or contamination sites, 18 historic mine features, and 17 EPA Superfund or cleanup sites. These mapped sites do not establish contamination at a particular lot, but they support testing and careful review of the well location. Keep the well, septic system, replacement area, driveway, and house site coordinated. Confirm setbacks and drainage with the county and the applicable DWR permit before excavation.

What to Do Before Buying or Building Near Laporte

Start with the exact parcel, then compare nearby DWR permits rather than relying on a broad regional estimate. Look for reported depth, yield, static water level, aquifer description, construction details, and the permitted use. Domestic or household use accounts for 52% of local permits, while monitoring wells account for 31%; do not assume every mapped well is a usable household supply.

For a vacant lot, get a driller's site review and a written budget that includes the completed system, not just the per-foot rate. Check whether an exempt household-use well fits the parcel and planned use; Colorado's exempt-well pumping limit is 35 gallons per minute. If the property is in an over-appropriated basin, ask whether an augmentation plan is required. Before closing, make water testing, septic feasibility, access for a drill rig, and confirmation of the permit conditions part of the review.

Well permits by decade near Laporte

What a new well costs in Laporte, 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 (118 ft) would run roughly $13,670–$23,800. 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 Laporte? 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 Laporte 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 Laporte

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

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