Well Drilling in LaGrange County, IN

• Coverage includes LaGrange, Topeka, Shipshewana, Howe, Wolcottville, Mongo, Lima Township and the lake areas around Oliver, Olin and Pretty lakes.
• Crews work along the Indiana Toll Road (I-80/90), US 20, SR 9, SR 5 and SR 120 across the county.
• Other Indiana counties on this site: Tippecanoe County, Hendricks County and Marion County, plus the Indiana well drilling guide.

• New domestic wells on farm and lake parcels
• Wells for barns, dairies and produce operations
• Replacing shallow drive-point wells with drilled wells
• Pump and pressure tank replacement
• Bacteria and nitrate testing near fields and barns
• Sealing abandoned wells under Indiana DNR rules

• Local depth: at the USGS median of about 40 ft, the site calculator's formula gives $2,500–$7,100 for a complete well. At the 75th percentile (about 90 ft) it gives $3,750–$10,350, and at the 90th (about 138 ft) $4,950–$13,470. 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 (25 wells).
• Permit: the county health department says no residential well permit is required, so the site calculator's $200–$500 permit line is a cushion for local septic or building fees, such as the department's $75 residential septic permit.
• Sand and gravel wells need a screen and development time; where clay layers in the till cut the outwash off, a driller may go deeper to the next sand layer.
• Farm wells sized for livestock or washing produce need larger pumps and pressure tanks than a household well.

• Step 1, local rules: the LaGrange County Health Department says the county has no well ordinance and no residential well permit; the driller follows state rules.
• Step 2, contractor: Indiana DNR licenses water well drillers and keeps the well records they file after drilling.
• Step 3, siting: Indiana's onsite sewage rule, 410 IAC 6-8.3-57, sets 50 feet between a private water supply well and both the septic tank and the soil absorption field.
• Step 4, septic on the same lot: a new septic system needs a county permit; the department lists $75 residential and $150 commercial.
• Step 5, commercial wells: 410 IAC 6-8.3-57 sets 100 feet from a commercial water supply well, which matters for farm stands and shops.

• Glacial aquifers: USGS site records for LaGrange County code 21 of the 25 wells with a depth to glacial deposits, mostly outwash sand and gravel of the Pleistocene, with a few deeper wells in older units. The glacial aquifer thickens toward the north, and bedrock lies along the bottom of a deep till and outwash formation, so the bedrock aquifer zone is rarely drilled.
• Reading the log: in the north of the county, along the Pigeon River and the Michigan line, outwash plains of sand and gravel carry water close to the surface; south, toward the lake belt near Wolcottville and Oliver Lake, till ridges and clay layers separate the aquifer into several zones. Shale bedrock lies far below the glacial drift, and household wells rarely reach it.
• USGS site records (n=25 with depth): 25th percentile about 25 ft, median about 40 ft, 75th percentile about 90 ft, 90th about 138 ft.
• Census ACS counts about 15,151 housing units with a median year built of 1982, with many farms on older wells.

LaGrange · Topeka · Shipshewana · Howe · Wolcottville · Mongo · Lima Township