Well Drilling in Itasca County, MN

• Coverage includes rural Grand Rapids, Cohasset, La Prairie, Deer River, Bigfork, Marcell, Coleraine, Bovey, Taconite, Marble, Calumet, Nashwauk, Keewatin, Squaw Lake, Effie and Warba.
• Lake lots need room for the well setbacks from septic tanks and drainfields, so site the well before the cabin addition, not after.
• Winter frost and snow on seasonal roads can delay rigs; spring road restrictions can too.

• New wells for lake homes and cabins
• Replacing old sand-point and shallow wells
• Submersible pump and pressure tank replacement
• Well sealing when a cabin is torn down or connected to city water
• Well disclosure records for property sales
• Iron and bacteria testing referrals

• Method: our calculator's sand-and-gravel row, $25–$40 per foot, plus about $1,500–$4,500 for the permit, pump and pressure tank, applied to the USGS median depth. That's an estimate, not a quote.
• Typical new well: at the USGS inventory median of about 80 ft, the calculator gives $3,500–$7,700. At the 75th percentile (132 ft) it gives $4,800–$9,780.
• State fees: MDH's fee schedule lists $325 for a water-supply well construction notification, $225 for a maintenance permit and $125 for a sealing notification, and a well contractor license costs $300.
• Rock wells cost more: the USGS records list 13 Biwabik Iron Formation wells on the Mesabi Range at a median of about 500 ft, so a range-side well that misses the drift sands can cost several times a lake-country well.

• Step 1, hire licensed: MDH licenses well contractors under Minnesota Statutes chapter 103I, and its fee schedule lists $300 for a well contractor license.
• Step 2, notify: the contractor files a well construction notification with MDH before drilling; the fee is $325 for a water-supply well.
• Step 3, build and record: the well must meet the Minnesota well code, and the record goes into the Minnesota Well Index, which is where a buyer or the next driller looks up depth and geology.
• Step 4, seal old wells: an unused well must be sealed by a licensed contractor, and MDH lists $125 for the sealing notification.
• At a sale, Minnesota Statutes § 103I.235 requires the seller to disclose wells on the property, and MDH lists a $54 well disclosure certificate fee paid to the county recorder.

• Glacial drift: the shallow USGS inventory median of about 80 ft reflects wells finished mostly in glacial outwash sand and gravel or in sand layers within the till, rather than in the bedrock below.
• Mesabi Range: some wells tap the Biwabik Iron Formation, a bedrock aquifer along the Mesabi Range northeast of Grand Rapids from Coleraine to Nashwauk, and USGS's study of the range treats the stratified glacial drift aquifers there as an important source too.
• Mapping gap: the Minnesota DNR lists Itasca County's County Geologic Atlas as Part A geology in progress, with the groundwater part not yet started, so driller logs are the best local depth guide.
• Shallow water: the 25th percentile depth in USGS records is about 58 ft, and shallow groundwater along lakeshores and wetlands is more exposed to surface water, so test after flooding or a new septic install nearby.
• Winters: deep frost on the Iron Range makes buried lines and a pitless adapter below frost depth the norm rather than an upgrade.

Grand Rapids (rural) · Cohasset · La Prairie · Deer River · Bigfork · Marcell · Coleraine · Bovey · Taconite · Calumet · Nashwauk · Keewatin · Squaw Lake