Placerville Colorado Well Depth, Yield, and Cost

How deep are wells around Placerville?

How much water do wells make near Placerville?

Placerville well depth depends on fractured mountain rock

The median well depth near Placerville is 143 feet. The middle half runs from 50 to 320 feet, so a driller bidding a typical home site should not assume every well will resemble the median. The depth distribution is broad: 41% are under 100 feet, 28% fall between 100 and 300 feet, 23% between 300 and 600 feet, and 8% reach 600 feet or more.

The deepest recorded well is 1,210 feet. That spread is consistent with fractured granite and gneiss, where water-bearing fractures may be shallow on one parcel and much deeper on another. Before buying, compare completed wells on the same slope, road, or drainage rather than relying only on the countywide median.

What Placerville wells usually produce

Among the 161 nearby records that report pump yield, the median is 10.0 gallons per minute. The middle half is 5.0 to 12.0 gallons per minute, which is a workable range for many household uses when the well, pressure system, storage, and permitted use are properly matched.

Reported production is not uniform. 65% of reported wells produce between 5 and 15 gallons per minute, while 17% produce more than 15 gallons per minute. Another 17% fall between 1 and 5 gallons per minute, and 1% are under 1 gallon per minute. Ask for the well test, not just a verbal estimate. A low-yield well may still work with storage, but it can affect design and cost.

Water levels near Placerville show little decade change

The median static water level is 62 feet below ground surface, with the middle half from 24 to 171 feet. Static level means the water in the well when it is not being pumped; it is not the same as the total drilled depth or the available household supply.

The reported decade medians are nearly unchanged: 53 feet below surface in the 2010s and 54 feet in the 2020s. That limited record does not suggest a clear broad decline, but only 44 wells report a static water level. Seasonal conditions, pumping, elevation, and the connected fracture system can still matter at an individual property. Have the seller provide recent production and water-level information where available.

Placerville permit history and the drillers in the records

Placerville’s well history is concentrated in permits issued from the 1980s through the 2000s: 111 in the 1980s, 218 in the 1990s, and 123 in the 2000s. There are also 48 permits from the 2010s and 42 from the 2020s. The newest permit year in the records is 2025.

The most frequently listed drillers are Bill Kissner Drilling Inc (Kissner, Bill F.) with 117 records, Western Drilling Services, LLC (Kuchler, Richard A.) with 104, and Valley Drilling Co. (Stoy, Kenneth) with 77. These names describe permit history, not a recommendation. Confirm current licensing, insurance, availability, and the full scope of any bid.

What a new Placerville well may cost

For fractured mountain bedrock such as granite and gneiss, the drilling model is $65 to $100 per foot. At the local median depth of 143 feet, the drilled hole works out to about $9,300 to $14,300. That is the hole only, not the complete water system.

A finished well with pump, tank, trenching, and electrical is modeled at about $15,300 to $26,300 at the median depth. The middle-half depth range of 50 to 320 feet explains why two nearby lots can receive very different bids. Ask whether the proposal includes casing, grout, mobilization, access, water testing, pump sizing, and an allowance for additional footage. In fractured rock, the final cost can rise if the first water-bearing fractures do not provide enough yield.

Placerville risks to check before construction

Permit records show that 75% of wells are for domestic or household use, with 7% for stock, 1% for irrigation, and 20% for monitoring. A household-use well is generally an exempt well, but the permit controls the allowed use and pumping conditions. Colorado’s exempt-well pumping limit is 35 gallons per minute; do not assume a permit supports irrigation, additional dwellings, or other expanded uses.

Environmental screening should include 4 PFAS sampling or contamination sites, 91 historic mine features, and 1 EPA Superfund or cleanup site mapped within about 10 miles. Test well water for the risks relevant to the parcel. Check septic setbacks, surface drainage, access for a rig, and the building site before drilling. Low yield, a dry hole, poor casing or grout, and difficult trenching can all affect the project.

Buying or building near Placerville, Sawpit, and Telluride

Start with the exact parcel, then review DWR permits and construction reports for neighboring wells. Records near Placerville include the nearby area of Sawpit, as well as Mountain Village, Telluride, Ophir, Norwood, and Ridgway. The closest comparison is usually more useful than an average taken across the entire county, especially in fractured bedrock.

For a purchase, make the well permit, construction report, yield test, static level, water-quality results, and septic approval part of due diligence. For a new build, obtain a driller’s access and depth estimate before finalizing the house location. Confirm the planned use with Colorado DWR, design storage if the yield calls for it, and budget beyond the median. The records show useful water in many wells, but they do not remove parcel-by-parcel uncertainty.

Well permits by decade near Placerville

What a new well costs in Placerville, 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 (320 ft) would run roughly $26,800–$44,000. 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 Placerville? 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 Placerville 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 Placerville

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

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