Well Drilling in Grant County, WI

• Coverage includes Lancaster, Platteville, Boscobel, Fennimore, Cuba City, Dickeyville, Potosi, Cassville, Bloomington and Muscoda's Grant County side.
• Crews work along US 61, US 18, US 151, WI 81 and WI 133 across the ridges and river bottoms.
• Notice goes to the Wisconsin DNR, which runs private well rules statewide under NR 812.
• Before you call: have the notification number or be ready to buy it, and know where the septic tank, the absorption field and any barn pens sit.

• Deep ridge-top wells into sandstone
• Replacement wells for old, shallow dolomite wells with bacteria or nitrate problems
• Pump and pressure tank work on farm wells
• Property transfer well inspections
• Bacteria, nitrate and arsenic testing
• Filling and sealing abandoned farm wells

• Local depth: at the USGS median of about 382 ft, the site calculator's formula gives $11,040–$29,300 for a complete well. At the 75th percentile (about 834 ft) it gives $22,350–$58,710, and at the 90th (about 1,010 ft) $26,750–$70,150. The site calculator's method is depth × $25–$65 per foot, plus permit $200–$500, pump $900–$2,500 and tank $400–$1,500. It is an estimate, not a quote.
• Notice fee: the Wisconsin DNR lists $50.50 for a Well Construction Notification, well under the calculator's $200–$500 permit line.
• Casing depth: creviced dolomite near the surface has to be cased off to protect the well, which adds footage on ridge lots.
• Pump setting: deep static levels on the ridges need bigger pumps and more drop pipe, so the pump line can run toward the top of the $900–$2,500 range.

• Step 1, notice: Wisconsin DNR says a property owner must get a Well Construction Notification number before a new private well is built, under section 281.34(3), Wisconsin Statutes. The fee is $50.50.
• Step 2, contractor: DNR says wells must be built by a licensed water well driller or a registered rig operator under one; owners may drive or drill their own well on their own land.
• Step 3, siting: DNR form 3300-076, citing Wis. Adm. Code NR 812.08, lists 25 feet from a septic or holding tank and 50 feet from a soil absorption unit, a privy pit or an animal barn pen.
• Step 4, report: DNR says a Well Construction Report is due within 30 days of construction, with the notification number on it.
• Step 5, testing: DNR recommends testing for bacteria and nitrate once a year and arsenic once every five years.

• Driftless karst: there's little glacial cover here, and the dolomite near the surface is creviced. USGS site records code wells to the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system, with 22 coded to the St. Peter Sandstone. The sandstone aquifer lies deeper toward the south of the county, and dolomite bedrock outcrop is common along the river bluffs; limestone and dolomite, not glacial till, sit at the surface here.
• Reading the log: on the ridges, a typical well passes the Galena-Platteville dolomite formation, then the St. Peter Sandstone, and may continue into the deeper Cambrian sandstone aquifer; along the Mississippi and Wisconsin river valleys, alluvium and outwash sand can yield water at much shallower depths. Fractures in the dolomite near the surface carry water fast, which is why casing through that zone matters.
• USGS site records (n=84 with depth): 25th percentile about 125 ft, median about 382 ft, 75th percentile about 834 ft, 90th about 1,010 ft.
• Nitrate: DNR says to avoid the water for infants and in pregnancy above 10 parts per million, a concern in farm country with thin soils over rock.
• Census ACS counts about 22,332 housing units with a median year built of 1973.

Lancaster · Platteville · Boscobel · Fennimore · Cuba City · Dickeyville · Potosi · Cassville · Bloomington