Penrose, Colorado Well Depth, Yield, and Cost

How deep are wells around Penrose?

How much water do wells make near Penrose?

Penrose well depths vary with the mountain rock

Penrose wells with reported depths have a median of 140 feet. The middle half runs from 66 to 285 feet, which is the range a driller is most likely to use when developing an initial bid. Still, the spread is wide: 34% of recorded wells are under 100 feet, 42% fall between 100 and 300 feet, 16% between 300 and 600 feet, and 8% exceed 600 feet.

The deepest reported well reaches 2,180 feet. Most permits identify an unnamed or fractured-bedrock aquifer; 840 wells are in that category, compared with 10 Dakota wells and 5 Dakota Group Aquifer wells. In fractured granite and gneiss, fractures control both depth and water supply, so a nearby shallow well does not guarantee the same result on your lot.

What a Penrose well may produce

Among the 170 wells that report a pump yield, the median is 10.0 gallons per minute. The middle half produces 5.6 to 15.0 gallons per minute. That is generally a workable range for a household when the well, pressure system, storage, and fixtures are designed together.

Yield records show 1% under 1 gallon per minute, 14% from 1 to 5 gallons per minute, 52% from 5 to 15 gallons per minute, and 34% above 15 gallons per minute. The 1% under 1 gallon per minute is not a reason to ignore low-yield risk. Ask for the well completion report and pumping information, then have the proposed home and irrigation demand evaluated separately. A permit does not promise a particular yield.

Penrose water levels are documented only sparsely

Only 19 permitted wells near Penrose report a static water level, so the local water-level picture is limited. Those records show a median depth to water of 48 feet, with the middle half between 20 and 144 feet.

That small sample does not establish a reliable decade-by-decade decline or prove that the water table is stable. Static water level also changes with location, season, pumping, and the time since a well was used. For a property under consideration, request the actual well report and ask whether the measurement was taken before or after pumping. A driller can also explain how the expected water level affects pump setting, trenching, pressure equipment, and the cost of bringing water into the house.

Who has drilled around Penrose, and when

Permit activity is not limited to one period. Records show 5 permits from the 1950s, 17 from the 1960s, 73 from the 1970s, 185 from the 1980s, 124 from the 1990s, 120 from the 2000s, 77 from the 2010s, and 18 from the 2020s. The newest permit year in the records is 2026. Older wells may still serve homes, but their construction, pump, and water-quality documentation deserves careful review.

The most active drillers in the records are Finney & Son (Finney, Leonard), with 187 wells; Finney Drilling (Finney, Larry D.), with 60; and Arkansas Valley Drilling (Moore, Todd A.), with 53. These records identify past permit activity, not a recommendation or a guarantee of current availability. Confirm licensing, scheduling, and the scope of any current bid directly.

A Penrose well budget starts with depth

Penrose drilling is priced in fractured mountain bedrock, described in the local cost model as granite and gneiss. The typical drilling rate is $65 to $100 per foot. At the 140-foot median depth, the drilled hole works out to about $9,100 to $14,000.

That is not the complete water-system price. A finished well with pump, tank, trenching, and electrical is modeled at about $15,100 to $26,000 at the median depth. A deeper-than-median hole, difficult access, extra casing or grout, longer trenching, and electrical work can move the final bid higher. Use the depth range of 66 to 285 feet as a planning range, not a promise. Ask each driller what is included and what happens if the hole is dry or must be deepened.

Checks that matter before building near Penrose

Low yield and dry-hole risk are the first technical concerns in fractured bedrock. Review neighboring well reports, but do not treat one successful well as proof for another parcel. A well producing less than 1 gallon per minute appears in 1% of the yield records, and only 170 wells report any pump yield.

Water quality also needs testing. Within about 10 miles, the map includes 26 PFAS sampling or contamination sites, 48 historic mine features, and 1 EPA Superfund or cleanup site. Those mapped sites do not prove contamination at your property, but they support testing before purchase and again before occupancy. Locate the well, septic system, replacement area, driveway, and house together. Confirm the permit conditions with Colorado DWR, and remember that domestic use, stock use, irrigation, and additional water needs may require different approvals or an augmentation plan in an over-appropriated basin.

Well permits by decade near Penrose

What a new well costs in Penrose, 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 (285 ft) would run roughly $24,525–$40,500. 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 Penrose? 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 Penrose 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 Penrose

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

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