Well Drilling in Eaton County, MI

• Census Bureau 2020 place codes for Eaton County list the cities of Charlotte, Eaton Rapids, Grand Ledge, Olivet and Potterville, the villages of Bellevue, Dimondale, Mulliken, Sunfield and Vermontville, and the Waverly census-designated place; Lansing city also appears under the county. The county subdivision file names Delta, Oneida and Windsor charter townships and Bellevue, Benton, Brookfield, Carmel, Chester, Eaton, Eaton Rapids, Hamlin, Kalamo, Roxand, Sunfield, Vermontville and Walton townships.
• Community supplies differ: using 2005 data, the 2009 USGS report lists Grand Ledge and Potterville as drawing from the Saginaw aquifer; Charlotte, Sunfield and Vermontville from aquifers in the glacial deposits; Eaton Rapids from both; and Bellevue and Olivet as taking a small amount from the Marshall aquifer in southwestern Eaton County.
• Article X, Section XI of the BEDHD code bars any municipality, township or other agency from issuing a building permit, or otherwise letting construction start, on land without public water until the Health Officer has approved construction of a well.
• Old records: BEDHD's residential application points owners to its Environmental Health office for earlier site evaluations, permits and final inspections. EGLE's Wellogic database has taken electronic well, pump and plugging records since 2000, holds over a million records open to the public, and needs no account for searching.

• New and replacement residential wells under a BEDHD well permit
• Irrigation and test wells, permitted by BEDHD in under-70 and over-70 gallons-per-minute classes
• Type II and Type III public supply wells; BEDHD's Type II examples include schools, day-care centers, motels, churches and restaurants
• Disinfecting a new or flooded well before the owner's coliform sample
• Plugging abandoned wells and dry holes
• Pump and pressure tank work by a registered pump installer, a registered well drilling contractor or a licensed master plumber

• Permit fees: BEDHD's FY2027 Environmental Fee Schedule, linked from its well page and checked October 28, 2026, lists $390 for a residential well permit under 70 gallons per minute, $455 for a well permit over 70 gpm or high capacity, $423 for a Type III well permit, and $667 (transient) or $876 (non-transient) plus the lab fee for a Type II well permit. The schedule and the FY2027 residential application both say a well installed without a permit is charged double.
• How deep: Water-Supply Paper 1969 found that only the upper part of the bedrock is a source of fresh water, with strata below a depth of 500 feet in the region generally holding saline water, and that a Saginaw Formation well's yield is controlled mainly by how much sandstone it penetrates. Logs filed for neighboring wells can be looked up in Wellogic.
• Using the site's cost calculator: you type a depth and choose a geology type that sets the per-foot range, and the tool adds a standard permit allowance plus, unless you untick it, a pump and pressure tank. Because those figures are drawn from national Angi, HomeGuide and HomeAdvisor cost pages, treat the total as a national ballpark rather than an Eaton County bid.
• Rock near the surface: the 2009 USGS report notes glacial deposits are missing in a small area near Grand Ledge, where the 1973 report says the Saginaw Formation crops out along the Grand River. Where bedrock is encountered within 25 feet of the ground surface, R 325.1637(1) requires an oversized borehole, with the permanent casing grouted with neat cement for a minimum depth of 25 feet.
• Large pumps: EGLE's withdrawal tool page says a landowner needs EGLE's approval before operating a new or increased withdrawal that relies on one pump or several able to deliver 70 gallons per minute or more. BEDHD's application, for a well producing 70 gpm or more alone or combined with other wells on the property, makes it the owner's job to run EGLE's Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool and see whether the well would cause an Adverse Resource Impact on a nearby surface water body.

• Who may drill: anyone in the business of drilling wells or installing pumps first needs a state well-drilling-contractor or pump-installer registration, renewed every year (MCL 333.12704). A driller's registration covers pump work as well; pump installers cannot drill (R 325.1608); licensed master plumbers may install pumps with no pump installer registration (MCL 333.12703(3)); and a county, city, village, township or other governmental unit doing this work also registers (MCL 333.12704(4)). Per EGLE, every registration lapses April 30, renewal applications are due March 1, and an unrenewed contractor is barred from drilling and pump installation from May 1 until renewal.
• Owner-built wells: MCL 333.12703(2) exempts a person who builds a well or installs a pump on land he or she owns or leases, but only when the well will serve just a single-family home that is the person's permanent residence, or just farming on the person's own farm, and the water is not meant for public use or for anyone else's residence. Such owners must still submit the MCL 333.12707 drilling record and meet the construction code, and BEDHD's permit requirement covers them as well.
• Permit trigger: Article X, Section IV makes it unlawful to build a new water supply system, or make extensive changes to an existing water supply well, without a construction permit from the Health Officer obtained by the owner or the owner's representative. Section V says extensive changes include, but are not limited to, replacing the entire casing, removing the casing from the ground or changing aquifers; ask BEDHD about other work.
• Applying: what to send, including the site-plan requirements, differs for new, replacement, and irrigation or test well permits, so work from BEDHD's current residential application, linked from its well page, rather than a summary here. Under Article X, Section VII a permit is valid for no more than one year and cannot be transferred to a new owner or to another location.
• After drilling: BEDHD's well page says the driller chlorinates the well, tells the owner about sampling, gives the well record to the owner and BEDHD, and builds to state and local requirements. The owner arranges BEDHD's final inspection of the well and pressure tank, flushes out the chlorine, and submits a sample for coliform bacteria and a partial chemical analysis (nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, hardness, fluoride, sodium, chloride and iron); residential wells must be sampled before final approval.
• Setbacks: among the minimum separations in R 325.1622 are 300 feet to an oil or gas well; 150 feet to a place where fertilizers, agricultural chemicals or other chemicals that could contaminate soil or groundwater are prepared or stored; 50 feet to a septic tank, a subsurface disposal field or an animal or poultry yard; and 10 feet to surface water such as a lake or stream. Under R 325.1613 the health officer can set a larger or smaller distance for a particular well, and buildings and pump rooms need 3 feet unless a deviation is issued (R 325.1624).
• Records: the driller has 60 days after completion to deliver the well log, one copy to the owner and two to the health officer, bearing a registered well drilling contractor's signature (MCL 333.12707, R 325.1675). Missing that deadline, or failing to keep the geologic record at the site during drilling, can lead the department or health officer to order geophysical logging. A pump installed on a new well gets its own signed record on the same 60-day timeline (R 325.1676).
• Plugging: the state rule (R 325.1662) puts plugging of an abandoned well or dry hole in the hands of the owner or a contractor registered for well drilling, and reserves it to a registered contractor when a well on the property serves the public or someone else's residence. BEDHD's well page draws a tighter local line, saying plugging is performed only by a licensed well driller, so talk to the department before doing it yourself. R 325.1663 to R 325.1665 give methods, and R 325.1675(3) covers the plugging report due within 60 days.

• Northwest (1973 report): glacial deposits were the chief aquifer, and the Saginaw and Michigan Formations served many household wells without being highly productive; Mulliken-area wells drew from glacial deposits or the Saginaw.
• Northeast (1973 report): the Saginaw Formation and glacial drift were the main aquifers, the Saginaw giving moderate to large supplies in southern Windsor and Benton townships and eastern Oneida Township. The 2009 report says most wells in this area's buried-outwash zone are completed in bedrock because of better water quality at depth.
• Southwest (1973 report): the glacial drift and the Marshall Formation were the main aquifers, but the Marshall yielded saline water in all but a few square miles of that area, and where it was fresh and the overlying Michigan Formation was saline, the report said the saline water must be sealed off in Marshall wells.
• Southeast (1973 report): the Saginaw Formation was highly productive in much of the northern half and less so in the southern half, while glacial deposits and the Michigan Formation generally yielded only a few gallons per minute, though glacial deposits were potential sources of large supplies in some localities.
• Water quality: the 1973 report found Saginaw and Grand River water suited to household needs at nearly all wells, though generally hard or very hard with objectionable iron. BEDHD recommends at least annual sampling where nitrate contamination is known in the area or results approach 10 mg/L, and EGLE recommends that homeowners have their well water tested for arsenic.

Charlotte · Eaton Rapids · Grand Ledge · Olivet · Bellevue · Potterville · Dimondale · Vermontville · Mulliken · Sunfield