Well Drilling in Huerfano County, CO

• Coverage includes Walsenburg, La Veta, Cuchara, Gardner, Redwing, Farisita, Badito and the ranch country toward Aguilar and the Las Animas County line.
• Crews work along I-25, US 160 over toward La Veta Pass, SR 69 through the Wet Mountain Valley edge and SR 12, the Highway of Legends, up the Cuchara valley.
• Other Rocky Mountain and western counties on this site: Umatilla County, OR and Pend Oreille County, WA.

• New domestic wells on ranch and mountain parcels
• Permitting and drilling under a Colorado exempt residential well permit
• Replacement or deepening of an existing permitted well
• Pump and pressure tank service, including freeze damage at cabins
• Cistern-to-well conversions on mountain lots
• Plugging and abandoning old wells under DWR rules

• Local depth: at the USGS median of about 59 ft, the site calculator's formula gives $2,975–$8,335 for a complete well. At the 75th percentile (about 83 ft) it gives $3,575–$9,895, and at the 90th (about 198 ft) $6,450–$17,370. 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. The USGS sample has 55 wells.
• Permit: Colorado DWR's GWS-44 instructions list a $100 filing fee, or $60 to replace or deepen an existing well into the same aquifer, which sits below the site calculator's $200–$500 permit line.
• Shale and coal-bearing formations can mean low yield or poor water quality, and a driller may need to go deeper or add storage, which changes the bill more than the permit does.
• Mountain access, snow on SR 12 and long hauls from Pueblo or Trinidad add mobilization time.

• Step 1, apply: file Form GWS-44 with the Colorado Division of Water Resources; the instructions list a $100 filing fee and say the application isn't processed until the fee is paid.
• Step 2, replacement: under the same instructions, a replacement or deepening into the same aquifer for the same uses costs $60.
• Step 3, siting: Colorado Rule 10.2.2 of the well construction rules (2 CCR 402-2) says a well must be at least 100 feet from the nearest existing source of contaminants and 50 feet from a septic tank or sewer line.
• Step 4, variance: Rule 10.2.2 says a well that can't meet that spacing needs a variance approved by the Board before construction.
• Step 5, drilling: a licensed Colorado well contractor builds the well and files the construction report with DWR.

• Raton Basin formations: USGS site records for Huerfano County code most wells to Tertiary sandstone and shale, with 25 coded to the Cuchara Formation, 13 to the Poison Canyon Formation and 7 to the Raton Formation.
• Reading the log: east of Walsenburg, along the Cucharas River and its creeks, shallow alluvium holds water close to the surface; west toward La Veta and the Spanish Peaks, wells drill into the sandstone and shale of the Cuchara and Poison Canyon formations, where water moves through fractures and sandstone layers. The Raton Formation, with coal seams, sits in the south of the county toward the Las Animas line, and igneous dikes radiating from the Spanish Peaks cut across the bedrock aquifer zone.
• USGS site records (n=55 with depth): 25th percentile about 37 ft, median about 59 ft, 75th percentile about 83 ft, 90th about 198 ft. Valley alluvium wells sit at the shallow end; bedrock wells on the benches sit at the deep end.
• Census ACS counts about 4,783 housing units with a median year built of 1975, so many rural wells are 40 years old or more.

Walsenburg · La Veta · Cuchara · Gardner · Redwing · Farisita · Badito