Well Drilling in Kent County, MI

• Coverage includes Rockford, Cedar Springs, Sparta, Kent City, Sand Lake, Lowell, Ada, Cannon Township, Caledonia and Byron Center.
• Crews work along US 131, M-57, M-37, M-21 and I-96 between the northern townships and the Thornapple valley.
• Other Michigan counties on this site: Eaton County, Ingham County and Chippewa County.
• Before you call: have the parcel number, the septic tank and drain field locations, and any old well on the lot marked, since the Kent County Health Department permit needs a site plan and the old well may have to be plugged.

• New domestic wells on township lots outside city water
• Replacement wells for old, shallow sand-point or drive-point wells
• Submersible pump and pressure tank replacement
• Irrigation and geothermal test wells under the county's separate permit class
• Water testing after a pump job or a new well
• Plugging abandoned wells when a home connects to a municipal main

• Local depth: at the USGS median of about 113 ft, the site calculator's formula gives $4,325–$11,845 for a complete well. At the 75th percentile (about 245 ft) it gives $7,625–$20,425, and at the 90th (about 274 ft) $8,350–$22,310. 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 is small.
• Permit: the Kent County Health Department application lists $175 for a new well, $175 for repair or replacement and $250 for irrigation, geothermal or test wells. Its regulations, Section 10.0, set a late penalty equal to the fee for work started without a permit.
• Glacial drift varies a lot over short distances here, so a driller who hits clay instead of sand may go deeper or into the Marshall sandstone, which adds footage and casing.
• Screen and development time on sand wells, and grout volume on deeper bores, are the line items to compare between quotes.

• Step 1, permit: apply to the Kent County Health Department. Section 7.0 of the Kent County Water Supply Regulations requires a permit before drilling, and Section 9.3 gives the department 30 days to decide. The new-well fee is $175.
• Step 2, fee basis: the application says fees are set under Section 2444 of the Michigan Public Health Code (Act 368 of 1978). A site evaluation is listed at $200 where one is needed.
• Step 3, siting: Michigan Rule 325.1622 sets 50 feet from a septic tank, a subsurface disposal field, a buried sewer and an animal yard, and 10 feet from a watertight gravity sewer or a lake or stream.
• Step 4, timing: Section 12.2 of the county regulations says a permit expires two years after it is issued, so schedule drilling inside that window.
• Step 5, records: keep the permit and the driller's well record; buyers and lenders ask for both.

• Glacial sand and gravel over Marshall sandstone: USGS site records for Kent County code most wells to the glacial deposit aquifers, with deeper wells in the Marshall aquifer, the Mississippian sandstone that underlies much of the county's west and north.
• Reading the log: in the north of the county, along the Rogue River and around Cedar Springs, wells often finish in sand and gravel of the glacial aquifer; toward the south and east, along the Thornapple, more wells pass through clay-rich till into the Marshall bedrock aquifer. The USGS aquifer codes in the county record show both, so a driller's logs from your section are the best guide.
• USGS site records (n=20 with depth): 25th percentile about 42 ft, median about 113 ft, 75th percentile about 245 ft, 90th about 274 ft. Shallow sand wells near the Grand and Rogue rivers sit at one end; bedrock wells on the uplands sit at the other.
• Under Michigan Rule 325.1622 the health officer can raise or lower the isolation distances for an individual well, which happens on small lake lots with older septic systems.
• Census ACS counts about 269,136 housing units in the county with a median year built of 1977, so many township wells date from the 1970s and 1980s.

Rockford · Cedar Springs · Sparta · Kent City · Sand Lake · Lowell · Ada · Cannon Township · Caledonia · Byron Center