How Much Does an Irrigation Well Cost in South Carolina?

Two national cost guides put a new irrigation well somewhere between $3,000 and $75,000. One prices it at $5,000 to $75,000, and the other at $3,000 to $40,000 or more. Those are market numbers for the whole country, not our price list.

The guides price irrigation drilling at $30 to $100 or more per foot. One of them says depth and distance drive most of a well’s price. In the Upstate, irrigation and farm well drilling goes down into rock, so depth is the first unknown.

What do national cost guides charge for an irrigation well?

The table pulls together what national cost guides publish, plus one state figure. The last column names the kind of source behind each row.

Read the table as a national picture. The first guide says irrigation wells cost the most of any well type, since they move the most water. It also says home irrigation costs much less than commercial irrigation.

When you compare quotes, check what each number covers. The hole and the casing are one part. The pump system and the line out to the field are the rest. For a well that serves the house, see what a home well costs in South Carolina.

Why is an Upstate irrigation well drilled into rock?

The Upstate sits on the Piedmont, in western South Carolina. USGS describes the aquifer here as bedrock under loose material called regolith. Most of that is saprolite, a layer of earthy, decomposed rock, and it runs 150 feet thick in places.

Water in the bedrock moves only through fractures. USGS says wells that hit no fractures yield little or no water. So the rig drills through the regolith and into the rock to reach them. USGS says these wells are ordinarily cased through the regolith.

We set the casing into bedrock, as the state requires. How far down that rock sits shows up when the rig reaches it. That is why our written estimate quotes a minimum depth.

Sometimes we hit good water near 200 feet. A hard-rock well we drilled in Inman found good water at a little over 520 feet.

What moves the cost of an irrigation well?

Depth to bedrock is the first driver. Casing runs through the soft layer and is set into the rock. The deeper the rock line, the more casing goes in.

Steady yield is next, because an irrigation system pulls water for hours. USGS says a well that hits only a few small, shallow fractures may start with an adequate yield. After those fractures drain, the yield can suddenly drop.

Wells that cross intensely fractured rock are the most dependable for sustained yield, USGS says. Sometimes the rig has to go deeper to cross more fractures.

The pump is sized to the well’s depth and yield. One guide says pump prices climb with how powerful the pump is. Lifting more water from deeper down takes a bigger pump with more horsepower. Well pump installation covers the pump, the pressure tank, the switch and the wiring.

The electrical run brings power from the panel out to the wellhead. One guide says the farther the well sits from the house, the higher the cost. The same guide prices extra piping and electrical wiring at $50 to $150 per foot.

The water line has to reach the sprinklers, the stock tank or the pond. We do the water line trenching from the wellhead out, below frost depth. A longer line means more trench and more pipe.

The pressure tank and switch finish the system. One guide says a larger tank lets the pump run fewer cycles. It puts a large pressure tank at $1,400 to $2,400.

How many gallons per minute does an irrigation well need?

Start with what the water has to do. A sprinkler system pulls a set number of gallons per minute for each zone. Stock tanks and a low pond add their own demand.

Clemson Extension says most turfgrasses need about an inch of water a week. Over one acre, that inch is about 27,000 gallons. A well making 20 gallons per minute moves 1,200 gallons an hour. In a dry week, that well would pump about 23 hours to water the acre.

USGS puts the average reported yield of Piedmont wells at about 15 to 20 gallons per minute. Wells making 50 gallons per minute or more are most common in broad draws and valleys. Wells on slopes and hills generally yield only small volumes.

One farm pond well we drilled came in at more than 20 gallons per minute. That is one well on one site. Even the state permit rule says coverage does not promise a well will yield enough water for its purpose. The yield of your well is known once it is drilled.

What does South Carolina require for an irrigation well?

SCDES defines an irrigation well as one that produces water for uses other than human consumption. Its examples are lawn and landscape watering, agricultural use and livestock. The state fee is $50 per irrigation well, against $70 for a home well.

State rule R.61-44 adds a condition at a home. An irrigation well is not permitted at a residence unless another drinking water source serves the house. That source can already exist or be proposed.

The two newest annual reports from the state’s private well program cover older budget years, July 2018 to June 2020. They count 1,071 and then 1,023 notices for irrigation wells. Each year, that was a little over one in five of all well notices filed.

The well driller is responsible for permit coverage before the well is built. Our guide to the South Carolina well permit covers the steps and the setbacks.

What will an irrigation well cost on your land?

A national range is a starting point. Your well gets priced once we have seen the land and know what the water is for. We do a site survey before we schedule and help pick the spot.

Then you get a free estimate in writing, with a minimum depth quoted and the casing explained. We are South Carolina certified well drillers, based in Pacolet, just outside Spartanburg. We work the Upstate about 60 miles around Spartanburg.

See how we size irrigation and farm wells for sprinklers, stock tanks, ponds and pools. Call (864) 768-5688 and we will get back to you.