ERIE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA · 100 MIN FROM OUR GREENVILLE OFFICE
North East is the grape-country borough in the far corner of Erie County, with vineyards and orchards on the lake plain and the escarpment rising behind them. The borough is on public water; the farms and homes in North East and Greenfield townships are on wells, and new wells are what they often need from us. Chatfield drills from our Greenville office.
Serving our communities since 1967
North East Township · Greenfield Township · Harborcreek Township
WHAT WE DO IN NORTH EAST
Whether you’re on a private well or city water, the same crew handles the water source, the pressure, and what comes out of the tap.
Wells around North East carry the lake-plain pattern: iron and hardness, with sulfur smell in some. A water test tells us which of those a home has, and that decides between a FerronX, a carbon filter, and a softener. On borough water, a CityLux takes out the chlorine.
For homes, farms, and vineyards in North East and Greenfield townships, we drill new wells through the clay into the rock beneath it, with air rotary or cable tool as the ground calls for. We handle the PA DEP permitting, and we test water flow before the rig leaves.
Pump, switch, and tank service covers the wells around North East, farm and irrigation pumps included. The crew diagnoses the system as a whole, replaces the part that failed, and carries the common sizes so most repairs finish in one visit.
WELLS AROUND NORTH EAST
The 251 domestic wells on file within 5 miles of North East, from the state’s drilling logs: your neighbors’ wells, and the best guide to this ground.
middle half 36–63 ft
middle half 3–10 gpm
middle half 15–27 ft
PaGWIS records
Source: PaGWIS (PA DCNR), domestic wells within 5 miles, retrieved 2026-09-30; older paper-record locations are approximate.
North East has the shallowest wells of the 16 Erie County towns ranked by median depth. Rock is close as well. The 149 logs that note it put bedrock at a median 18 feet, and only a quarter had to go 27 feet or more, so casing is usually a short run here and most of a typical well is in rock. The rock mapped under the town is the Northeast Shale.
A short casing puts more weight on the top of the well. Casing and the grout around it are what keep surface water from running down the outside of the pipe, and on a shallow well there is less ground between the surface and the water the pump draws. A wellhead standing above grade, a sealed cap and ground that slopes away from it are worth checking. A well inspection covers them, and well cleaning handles a well that needs shock chlorination.
Yields are the tight constraint. Of the 202 logs that record one, the median is 5 gallons per minute, a quarter logged 3 or less, and only a quarter reached 10. A shallow well also holds less water standing in the bore, so there is little in reserve when demand outruns the well.
The answers are on the pump side and in the household’s habits. The pump is kept within what the well can sustain, and a larger pressure tank holds more water between starts. Spreading out big draws helps: laundry, a run of showers and garden watering in the same hour are what empty a thin well. Borough homes are on a separate supply, and the North East treatment page covers how it’s treated.
WATER IN ERIE COUNTY
In USGS samples from across Erie County, taken 1927–2023, 68% of wells were hard or very hard, 33% carried iron above the staining line, 83% had manganese above 0.05 mg/L. The full record, and what it means for treatment, is on the Erie County page; your own well gets its own test.
WHY NORTH EAST CHOOSES CHATFIELD
Rated 4.7 on Google across 104 reviews. Here is what working with us looks like, in a customer’s words.
“We bought a new home November 1st, 2024 and low and behold it had a collapsed well. After several quotes, we chose Chatfield drilling, and we’re glad we did! Matt & his team arrived quickly to assess the situation, and formulate a plan to get the H2O flowing again. Even through the holidays, they did not waiver. Eric their driller worked hard in the brutal NE Ohio cold to pound a well for us. We are beyond pleased, and have fantastic water!”
NEARBY
We send the same crews to each of these towns. If you’re between towns, pick the closest one; the service doesn’t change.
A LITTLE CLARITY
Yes. Residential and agricultural wells in North East and Greenfield townships, with the drilling method matched to the ground, PA DEP permit assistance, casing and pump installation, and a flow test as part of the job.
Yes. Farm and irrigation wells are part of what we drill, sized to the flow the operation needs, with the pump and controls to match.
Our Greenville office (854 Mercer Rd., Greenville, PA 16125) is about 100 minutes and 78 miles by road from North East. Service calls for North East are scheduled from there.
North East and the municipalities around it: North East Township, Greenfield Township, Harborcreek Township. Beyond those, the rest of the 16 Erie County communities on our service map, from the same office.
Pennsylvania’s groundwater database (PaGWIS) lists 251 domestic wells within 5 miles of North East: the median is 50 feet deep, and the middle half fall between 36 and 63 feet. The median well was logged at 5 gallons per minute. Drillers reached bedrock at a median of 18 feet. Your own well's depth depends on the ground under your lot.
Not reliably. A rock well takes in water through cracks and openings the hole crosses, and extra depth doesn’t promise more of them. It does add water standing in the bore, which helps a thin well through a busy hour. Whether to keep going is a decision to make with the driller while the rig is on site.
It comes from surface water rather than wells. EPA lists five intakes for the North East Borough Water Department, which serves a population of 4,601. They are the Eaton, Smith and Grahamville reservoirs, Videtto Springs and Lake Erie. Borough homes get their water quality report from the department. Homes beyond its mains run their own wells, with the wellhead, pump and tank theirs to keep up.
Talk with the Chatfield team.
(724) 588-2652A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE GOES A LONG WAY
WATER TESTINGWhat a test measures, what the results mean, and what happens next.
WELL DRILLINGWhat drives the price of drilling a well in our region, and what to ask before you sign.
WATER PROBLEMSChlorine or chloramine, how to tell which, and the whole-home fix.
YOUR NEXT STEP
Tell us what you’re noticing. We’ll come out from Greenville, test your water, and walk you through the next step.