Colorado Well Finder › Wells by county › Garfield County › New Castle
Buying land near New Castle means looking closely at the well record, not just the listing description. Permits within 5 miles show relatively shallow wells overall, strong reported production, and a water source commonly identified as unnamed or fractured bedrock. The records also include alluvial and Mancos wells.
These figures are useful for planning, but they are not a guarantee for one parcel. A driller still needs to evaluate access, geology, casing and grout requirements, pump equipment, power, septic layout, and the well permits on neighboring properties.
Figures are computed from Colorado Division of Water Resources permit records for permitted wells within 5 miles of New Castle. Not every permit reports every field; each statistic uses the wells that report it.
| Depth statistic | Feet |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | 60 |
| Median | 94 |
| 75th percentile | 154 |
| 90th percentile | 240 |
| Deepest on record | 2,203 |
| Aquifer named on permits | Wells |
|---|---|
| unnamed / fractured-bedrock aquifer | 921 |
| Mancos | 4 |
| Alluvial | 4 |
| Yield statistic | gpm |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | 10.0 |
| Median | 15.0 |
| 75th percentile | 15.0 |
| Median depth to water | 42 ft |
| Median water level by decade | Depth to water |
|---|---|
| 2000s | 50 ft |
| 2010s | 41 ft |
| 2020s | 54 ft |
The median reported well depth near New Castle is 94 feet. The middle half runs from 60 to 154 feet, so many ordinary drilling bids should be based on a relatively shallow hole. Still, the range is wide: the 90th percentile is 240 feet, and the deepest record reaches 2,203 feet.
Depth mix helps put that spread in context. Fifty-two percent of wells are under 100 feet, while 42% fall between 100 and 300 feet. Another 6% are 300 to 600 feet, with no recorded wells in the 600-plus-foot category. A contractor should price the expected depth separately from casing, grout, pump, trenching, and electrical work.
Among the records that report pump yield, the median is 15.0 gallons per minute, with the middle half from 10.0 to 15.0 gallons per minute. Sixty-five percent report more than 15 gallons per minute. Another 27% fall between 5 and 15 gallons per minute, and 8% are between 1 and 5 gallons per minute.
No recorded well in this dataset reports less than 1 gallon per minute. That is encouraging for a buyer, but yield is not the same as usable storage or a guaranteed household supply. Ask for the well test, permitted use, pump setting, and any production limits. Exempt household-use wells also have a 35-gpm pumping limit under Colorado rules.
Reported static water levels have a median depth of 42 feet below the surface. The middle half is 20 to 79 feet below ground, which gives a reasonable planning range for pump installation and trench work, but not a promise for a new well.
The decade pattern does not show a steady decline. Median depth to water was 50 feet in the 2000s, 41 feet in the 2010s, and 54 feet in the 2020s. Those measurements come from only 72 records, so treat them as local evidence rather than a basin-wide trend. Confirm current conditions with nearby well owners and the Colorado Division of Water Resources record.
The permit record includes 932 wells within the study area, although only 470 are recorded as constructed. Six hundred four report a total depth, 215 report a pump yield, and 72 report a static water level. That uneven reporting is why a buyer should not treat every mapped point as a complete operating-well file.
Permitting has continued across decades, with the largest recorded period in the 1990s at 257 permits. The newest permit year is 2025. The most active drillers listed in these records are Shelton Drilling Corporation, Collins Drilling Co, and Mountain Drilling Co. Older contractor records can help identify local patterns, but a current driller must inspect the specific lot and confirm present permitting requirements.
For mixed sedimentary and alluvial ground, the local drilling model uses a typical rate of $50 to $75 per foot. At the 94-foot median depth, the drilled hole is estimated at about $4,700 to $7,100.
A finished system is more than the borehole. Including the pump, pressure tank, trenching, and electrical work, the modeled total is about $10,700 to $19,100 at the median depth. A deeper-than-typical hole, difficult access, extra casing or grout, long utility runs, and rock or unstable formations can change the bid. Get a written scope that separates drilling from completion and site work.
The mapped area within about 10 miles includes 183 PFAS sampling or contamination sites, 38 historic mine features, and 1 EPA Superfund or cleanup site. Those mapped locations do not prove that a particular well is contaminated, but they justify reviewing environmental records and testing existing or new well water.
Most permits identify an unnamed or fractured-bedrock aquifer: 921 wells use that description. Fractured rock can be unpredictable even where nearby wells perform well. Before building, confirm the well location, septic setbacks, replacement area, driveway access, and house layout. Ask whether the permit allows the intended household, stock, or irrigation use and whether an augmentation plan is needed in an over-appropriated basin.
Start with the neighboring wells in Chacra and the surrounding New Castle area, then compare depth, yield, static level, construction date, and permitted use. The local records are dominated by domestic and household wells at 74%, followed by stock at 9%, irrigation at 6%, and monitoring at 11%. That mix helps explain what nearby permits may have been built to do.
Before closing, obtain the DWR permit and completion documents, a current well test, and water-quality results when available. Have a driller walk the parcel to price access and a realistic drilling range. If you are building, coordinate the well, septic system, electrical route, and grading before excavation. In New Castle, the shallow median is helpful, but the fractured-bedrock records and incomplete reporting make parcel-specific verification essential.
| Decade permitted | Wells |
|---|---|
| 1950s | 4 |
| 1960s | 23 |
| 1970s | 94 |
| 1980s | 141 |
| 1990s | 257 |
| 2000s | 160 |
| 2010s | 64 |
| 2020s | 50 |
| Most active drillers on record | Wells |
|---|---|
| Shelton Drilling Corporation (Shelton, Wayne) | 266 |
| Collins Drilling Co (Collins, F. E. "Bodie") | 103 |
| Mountain Drilling Co. (Mcvey, Ora) | 62 |
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 (154 ft) would run roughly $13,700–$23,550. See the full Colorado well cost guide.
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.
The numbers above are the area average. Your lot is one point on the map. Search the address to see the real depth, yield and aquifer of each permitted well around it.
Map wells near New CastleTri-Lakes Contracting is a licensed Colorado contractor serving New Castle and the surrounding Garfield County area with access driveways, site development, new-build septic systems, and custom homes. Coordinate the well, septic, utilities, and building site with one local construction plan.
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A listing photo can't tell you whether a lot is a dream or a money pit. Two parcels near New Castle 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.
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.
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The median reported well depth within 5 miles of New Castle is 94 feet. The middle half runs from 60 to 154 feet. Fifty-two percent are under 100 feet, while 42% are between 100 and 300 feet. The 90th percentile is 240 feet, so a buyer should still budget for a deeper-than-median outcome.
The local cost model uses $50 to $75 per foot in mixed sedimentary and alluvial ground. At the 94-foot median depth, the drilled hole is about $4,700 to $7,100. A finished well with pump, tank, trenching, and electrical is modeled at about $10,700 to $19,100. Access and construction conditions can change the bid.
Reported yields have a 15.0-gpm median, with the middle half between 10.0 and 15.0 gpm. Sixty-five percent report more than 15 gpm, 27% report 5 to 15 gpm, and 8% report 1 to 5 gpm. No recorded well reports under 1 gpm, but the records do not cover every well feature completely.
Safety cannot be determined from depth or yield alone. Within about 10 miles, the mapped records include 183 PFAS sampling or contamination sites, 38 historic mine features, and 1 EPA Superfund or cleanup site. Have the property’s water tested and review nearby environmental records before relying on the well for drinking water.
The available measurements do not show a steady decline. Median static water depth was 50 feet in the 2000s, 41 feet in the 2010s, and 54 feet in the 2020s. Only 72 records report a static water level, so these figures are local indicators rather than proof of a broad groundwater trend.
All wells in Garfield County — county-wide depth, yield and cost figures.
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