Before I bought my first expansion parcel, I assumed a permitted domestic well was a permitted domestic well. The paperwork looked fine. The seller had a completion report. I didn't push further.
What I didn't do was hire a licensed pump tester to run a four-hour yield test before closing. The well had been drilled into a marginal zone of the aquifer, and actual sustained yield came in at less than half what I needed for even limited livestock watering. The permit said it was legal. It didn't say it was functional.
In my part of the Uncompahgre, aquifer performance varies dramatically across short distances depending on fracture orientation in the underlying sandstone. County records tell you nothing about that. Even neighboring wells are unreliable comparisons.
I now require a pump test as a non-negotiable closing condition on any parcel without surface water rights attached. Full stop. A well that underperforms isn't infrastructure — it's a liability with a casing around it.
Anyone else out here treating pump tests as optional learned it the hard way, or do you actually budget for them upfront?