Northwest of Springfield, rural homes around Willard, MO sit outside the reach of the city's water, and those homes are where we do well drilling. The Willard Public Water System is a city-run groundwater system serving about 8,400 people, so in-town homes are covered. Out along US 160 and the lettered routes, households depend on private wells, and the wells near Willard run shallower than the county median.
Mostly, yes. A complete well 200 to 500 feet deep carries a published estimate of $10,000 to $34,000 from WellDrillingCosts.com, and based on DNR well records through 2016 the middle half of household wells within 5 miles of Willard run from about 385 to 500 feet. The median there is about 425 feet, shallower than Greene County's 470. We still set steel casing into rock before drilling the open hole that holds the water.
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Those state well records put the shallowest ground north of Willard, where the median well was about 410 feet deep and only about 1 in 7 went past 500 feet; to the northeast, fewer than 1 in 10 did. South of town the median rose to about 465 feet, with nearly 4 in 10 past 500. About a third of all nearby wells were 400 feet deep or less.
Casing does not shrink along with the depth. Willard is in DNR Drilling Area 9, where casing on a bedrock well must extend at least 10 feet below the Ozark Confining Unit. DNR's minimums for the quarter sections within 5 miles of town have a median near 290 feet, with about 85 percent at 250 feet or more, while only about 1 in 5 wells in the older records carries 250 feet of casing or more.
On a well that finishes near 400 feet, a 300-foot casing minimum covers most of the hole. That is why we price a new Willard-area well from the DNR minimum for your quarter section rather than from an old record next door.
One upside: water stands fairly high here, with fewer than 1 in 10 nearby wells reporting a static level deeper than 200 feet.
Willard is in Greene County, so a well sample from around town qualifies for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department's in-county bacteria rate. The department advises a bacteria test every year and a test for harmful chemicals every 2 to 3 years, and it also suggests testing:
Between tests, DNR's guide for new well owners puts the upkeep on the owner. State law requires the wellhead to stand at least one foot above grade, so keep mowers and tractors clear of it. Keep leaves and trash away from the casing, check now and then for cracks or a loose cap, and keep gasoline and chemicals out of any wellhouse.
If one of those checks turns up a problem, call us and we'll talk through the fix.
Willard sits on karst ground at 1,237 feet, with Asher Creek rising just north of town and flowing to the Little Sac River. USGS describes a 1973 case southeast of Willard where a leaking lagoon, probably built over a sinkhole, polluted a spring and a pond. That is the reason casing depth and a tight seal matter here.
In the same DNR records, wells within 5 miles of Willard carry a median casing of about 148 feet, report a median yield of about 50 gallons per minute, and have a median static water level near 130 feet. EPA also lists the Greene Hills Water Association, a small shared groundwater system with a Willard address.
US 160 is Willard's main road, called Olympian Boulevard locally. It skirts the old downtown to the southwest, while US 160 Business follows Jackson Street through the center between junctions northwest and southeast of downtown. I-44 exit 75 (the West Bypass) is signed for Willard, Route O runs west from MO 13 toward Willard and Glidewell, and MO 123 passes Pearl.
Pearl is about 4 miles northwest of town, and Cave Spring sits on Route AC about a mile east of Pearl, named for a large spring on Asher Creek. Clear Creek crosses under US 160 between Willard and Ash Grove.
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