What to Expect from a Well in Montrose County

How deep are wells around Montrose County?

How much water do wells make near Montrose County?

A Shallow County Median, but a Wide Drilling Range

Of the 2,336 wells reporting depth, the median is 70 feet. The middle half runs from 33 to 224 feet, and 56% are under 100 feet. For a buyer, that means a shallow bid may be reasonable on some parcels, but the county median is not a depth guarantee.

Montrose County has mixed sedimentary and alluvial ground. Permit aquifer labels are mostly unnamed or fractured bedrock, with Dakota and Dakota Sandstone also identified. Water-bearing layers and fractures can vary between sites. The 90th-percentile depth is 358 feet, so ask the driller to explain which neighboring completion records support the proposed depth and how additional footage will be charged.

What the Recorded Flow Means for a Household

The 413 reported pump yields have a median of 10 gpm, with the middle half between 5 and 15 gpm. That is an encouraging starting point for household planning, but a recorded pump yield does not establish how a well performs through sustained use or seasonal changes.

At the low end, 3% report under 1 gpm, and 17% fall in the 1-5 gpm category. A low-producing well can require storage and careful demand management. Before buying, request a current yield and recovery test rather than relying on an old permit entry. Also verify the permitted uses: a productive well does not automatically authorize irrigation or every planned use on the property.

Montrose County Water Levels Do Not Show a Steady Decline

Static water level is the depth to resting water, not the bottom of the well. Among 159 reported measurements, the county median is 32 feet below ground, and the middle half is 17-106 feet. Those measurements help describe pumping conditions, but they do not tell you how much water a well can deliver.

Decade medians were 22 feet in the 2000s, 45 feet in the 2010s and 30 feet in the 2020s. This series does not show a steady drop in the water table. It also compares groups of measurements, not necessarily repeated readings from the same wells. For a particular property, seek dated measurements and pumping-test records from that well.

The County's Permit History and Recorded Drillers

Montrose County's permit history stretches from 84 permits in the 1950s to a newest permit year of 2025. The largest listed decade was the 2000s, with 820 permits, followed by 495 in the 2010s and 361 in the 2020s. The latest decade is incomplete, and permit issuance is not the same as completed household-well construction.

Named drilling firms in the records include Valley Drilling Co. (Stoy, Kenneth), with 280 entries, and Mccracken Well Drilling Inc (Mccracken, Alan E.), with 135. Historical entries are useful leads, not confirmation of current availability or licensing. Domestic/household uses account for 49% of the use mix, so compare records serving a similar purpose when evaluating a residential lot.

Budgeting for the Hole and the Finished Well

The local cost model uses $50-$75 per foot for drilling in mixed sedimentary and alluvial ground. At the county's 70-foot median depth, the drilled hole is about $3,500-$5,200. A finished well with pump, tank, trenching and electrical is modeled at about $9,500-$17,200.

Keep those scopes separate when comparing bids. A drilling price is not the price of water delivered to the house. Ask what the quote includes for casing, grout, testing, pump equipment and site access. Because the middle half of recorded depths reaches 224 feet, a median-depth allowance can be too lean for a deeper parcel. Get a site-specific estimate and written terms for additional drilling or an unsuccessful hole.

Environmental Flags, Low Yield and Septic Placement

The supplied environmental mapping identifies 28 PFAS sampling/contamination sites, 7 historic mine features and 1 EPA Superfund/cleanup site within about 10 miles. These are screening flags, not evidence that a particular private well is contaminated. Review the actual site locations and available findings, then choose water tests appropriate to the property.

Construction matters too: inspect the wellhead, surface drainage, casing and available grout records. Coordinate the well location with septic suitability, required setbacks, the house and driveway before fixing the building layout. Low yield deserves its own investigation. Missing construction or yield information does not prove a dry hole; obtain the completion report and test results rather than treating an incomplete permit record as a verdict.

Before Buying Land near Olathe, Nucla or Colona

Compare the parcel with nearby completed wells before leaning on the county average. Records around Olathe, Montrose or Colona should be checked locally, just as a parcel near Naturita, Nucla or Redvale needs its own neighboring-well review. Look for comparable ground, elevations, depths, reported yields and actual construction status.

For an existing home, match the well permit to the property and obtain the construction log, pump records, water-quality results and a current performance test. For vacant land, confirm DWR permit eligibility and allowed uses before committing to the build. Ask whether augmentation is required for the proposed use. Have the driller and site contractor coordinate access, well placement, septic and utility routing before finalizing the house location.

Well permits by decade near Montrose County

What a new well costs in Montrose 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 (224 ft) would run roughly $17,200–$28,800. 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 Montrose 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 Montrose 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 Montrose County

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Towns and areas in Montrose County

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