Well Water Nerd

Well water in Esmeralda County, Nevada

No public well test results have been compiled for Esmeralda County yet. The USGS national arsenic model estimates that 12% of the 191 people on private wells there draw water with arsenic above 10 ug/L, the EPA limit, based on geology, well depth and land use rather than local tests.

The strongest signal is coliform bacteria: Recommended for every private well, every year, too few samples to carry the headline but first on the test list below.

34 test results across 13 contaminants from at least 4 wells, 2003 to 2021; nitrate has the most at 6. Data refreshed September 15, 2026.

Compiled by Nick at Well Water Nerd from public records. How these pages are built

Data confidence: estimate. No state program or federal monitoring data for Esmeralda County has been compiled here yet, so the arsenic figure is the USGS national model, not a measurement. Treat a high estimate as a reason to test, not as your well's number. Measured results are added as states publish them.

An estimated 191 people in Esmeralda County get their drinking water from a private well, per USGS 2015 county water use. That is about 23% of residents.

Closer than the county

See the sampled wells near your address

The same records, drawn around one point: which wells within a few miles were sampled and what they found, how deep the wells next to you were drilled, and any leaking tank or cleanup site within a mile.

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What this means

Among contaminants with a federal limit, no tested sample in Esmeralda County came back above it. That is reassuring, but sampling is uneven: wells that were never tested are not in this data.

Chloride, Iron, and Manganese are widespread in local groundwater. They are mainly a staining and taste problem, but high manganese also carries a health advisory for infants.

The median radon reading (2,580 pCi/L) is above the 2,000 pCi/L level at which treatment is recommended. Radon in water raises indoor air radon when it is used for showers and laundry.

What to test for in Esmeralda County

  1. 1
    Coliform bacteria
    Recommended for every private well, every year.
  2. 2
    Radon
    Median local reading is 2,580 pCi/L.
  3. 3
    Nitrate
    Recommended for every private well, especially near farms or septic systems.
  4. 4
    Arsenic
    Above the limit in 1 of 1 local samples; too few to quote a rate.
  5. 5
    Fluoride
    Above the limit in 2 of 5 local samples; too few to quote a rate.
  6. 6
    Chloride
    Detected in 100% of local samples.
  7. 7
    Iron
    Detected in 100% of local samples.
  8. 8
    Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
    19 leaking underground storage tank sites on record locally.

Test your Esmeralda County well for coliform bacteria, radon and nitrate

Certified lab analysis of your own tap water, bottles and prepaid return shipping included. The Essential well panel covers arsenic, uranium, nitrate, lead, copper, manganese, iron, sodium and bacteria; radon and PFAS are add-ons.

Order the Tap Score well water test kit, from $209Already tested? Upload the report

Just want bacteria checked first? Tap Score coliform and E. coli test, $99. Coliform and E. coli are the tests every well needs every year.

Want a quick look before paying for a lab? Home well water test strips on Amazon check hardness, iron, pH and nitrate in minutes. They are a screen, not a result: arsenic, bacteria, uranium and PFAS need a certified lab.

Affiliate links: the merchant pays us a commission and the price is the same for you. It does not change what the data above says. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Where to get a well tested in Nevada: certified labs, state programs and prices.

Already have results back? Get your lab report read against the Esmeralda County numbers, $29. Every line explained, ranked by what matters, with the fix for each.

Wells in Esmeralda County

308 domestic wells in Esmeralda County are on record with the state since 1971. the typical well is 200 feet deep (one in ten goes past 377 feet).

In a typical Esmeralda County well, the median yield is 30 gallons per minute.

17
1970s
71
1980s
37
1990s
80
2000s
55
2010s
30
2020s

Find your own well's report

The state keeps the driller's report for most wells drilled since 1984. It tells you how deep your well is, where bedrock starts, and how much water it makes, which decides what treatment can work.

  1. Open NDWR well driller reports and choose Water Well.
  2. The report lists depth, casing, static water level and the yield test.

Nevada has required driller reports since the 1940s, so most wells have one.

The rock under Esmeralda County

Basin and Range carbonate-rock aquifers

Carbonate-rock. Limestone and dolomite move water through cracks and solution channels, sometimes very fast. Bacteria and nitrate can travel from the surface to a well in days, so annual bacteria testing matters more here than most places; hardness is a given.

Classification from the USGS Principal Aquifers of the United States (national map, 2003 edition, GIS release 2015), read at the county centroid. A single well can sit in a different unit, especially near a boundary.

Official help in Nevada

Two places to start that are not selling anything: the state program that answers private well questions, and its list of labs certified to run drinking water tests. A certified lab is the difference between a result you can act on and a number.

Contamination sources on record in Esmeralda County

NDEP corrective action release events records 19 leaking underground storage tank sites in Esmeralda County, among 19 regulated sites in total. Groundwater does not follow property lines, so a well within a few hundred feet of one of these is worth testing for what that site could release.

19
leaking underground storage tank sitesGasoline and heating oil that leaked from tanks move through groundwater as benzene, MTBE and other volatile organic compounds.

Treatment that fits the local profile

Radon

Aeration (bubble-up or diffused) whole-house; Granular activated carbon whole-house (lower levels only)

Fluoride

Point-of-use reverse osmosis; Activated alumina; Distillation

Chloride

Point-of-use reverse osmosis; Distillation

Systems we would look at first

Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy through one, the merchant pays us a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products we list or what the data says.

For fluoride

Under-sink reverse osmosis system

under-sink or countertop, about $300

Look for NSF/ANSI 58 certification listing the contaminant you need removed.

For fluoride

Aquasana SmartFlow reverse osmosis

under-sink or countertop, about $225

Certified to NSF/ANSI 58 and 53 to reduce arsenic (96%, pentavalent), fluoride (90%), lead (99%), nitrate, nitrite and PFOA/PFOS at the kitchen tap, with a remineralizer.

Free, no obligation

Get on the list for a free in-home water test in Esmeralda County

No water treatment company serves Esmeralda County through Well Water Nerd yet. We are signing licensed companies on county by county: they test at your tap for free, walk you through the numbers, and quote treatment only if something needs fixing. Leave your details and you are first in line. Nothing is shared until a company joins for Esmeralda County, and you get an email naming it first.

What are you worried about?

The test is free and there is no obligation. No company is named yet; your details stay with us until one joins for your area, and we log the time and address of this request.

Common questions

How deep are wells in Esmeralda County?

The typical domestic well in Esmeralda County is 200 feet deep, based on 308 wells reported to the state since 1971. One in ten is deeper than 377 feet.

How often should I test a private well in Esmeralda County?

Test for bacteria and nitrate every year. Test once for arsenic, uranium, radon, fluoride, manganese and PFAS, then again every three to five years or after any change in taste, color, or plumbing.

Counties near Esmeralda County

Closest first. Groundwater does not stop at a line on a map, so the next county over is a fair second opinion.

Want the numbers themselves? Download the Nevada dataset as CSV, every county and town, with the sources named.

Sources

  • USGS Water Quality Portal: 34 samples in Esmeralda County. Data from the Water Quality Portal, a service of USGS, EPA and USDA; groundwater samples collected by USGS and cooperators. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
  • USGS national arsenic model (Ayotte 2017): estimated share of 191 people on private wells in Esmeralda County above 10 ug/L of arsenic, from geology, well depth and land use. County estimates of domestic well users with arsenic above 10 ug/L from the USGS national logistic regression model (Ayotte, Medalie and Qi, 2017), with private well population from the USGS 2015 county water-use compilation (Dieter and others, 2018). Retrieved September 15, 2026.
  • Nevada NDWR well driller reports: 1,028 well records in Esmeralda County, 308 domestic. Well driller reports filed with the Nevada Division of Water Resources. Only aggregates are shown; owner names and addresses are never stored. Retrieved September 18, 2026.
  • NDEP corrective action release events: 19 regulated sites located in Esmeralda County. Leaking tank and other release events under corrective action at the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. Retrieved September 18, 2026.

Non-detects count as samples and are treated as zero when computing medians. Exactly at the limit counts as not above it. A sample belongs to the town containing the well's reported coordinates.