ERIE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA · 70 MIN FROM OUR CORTLAND OFFICE
Around Platea, the ground can change a good deal from one lot to the next. Of the 337 logs that record bedrock, a quarter hit it by 16 feet and another quarter not until 69 or deeper. Yields spread just as wide, from 4 gallons a minute or less at the bottom quarter to 18 or more at the top.
Serving our communities since 1967
Girard Township · Cranesville · Girard · Albion · Elk Creek Township · Lake City · Franklin Township · Springfield Township · Conneaut Township · Fairview Township
WHAT WE DO IN PLATEA
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.
Hardness and iron both turn up often in Erie County's USGS well record: 68% of 349 wells were hard or very hard, and 33% of 251 carried iron above the staining line. A water test tells a household which applies, and whether a LuxSoft softener or FerronX Iron System fits.
The rock mapped under the town is Chadakoin Formation siltstone, shale and sandstone. By median well depth Platea ties for 7th of 16 in Erie County. Casing usually runs to rock, and with rock this uneven, its length is decided hole by hole.
A median yield of 7 gallons a minute is modest, but the top quarter at 18 or more has room for a larger pump. With a range this wide, the pump and pressure tank are chosen from a flow test, never copied from a neighbor's setup.
WELLS AROUND PLATEA
The 710 domestic wells on file within 5 miles of Platea, from the state’s drilling logs: your neighbors’ wells, and the best guide to this ground.
middle half 45–80 ft
middle half 4–18 gpm
middle half 16–69 ft
PaGWIS records
Source: PaGWIS (PA DCNR), domestic wells within 5 miles, retrieved 2026-09-30; older paper-record locations are approximate.
Depth to rock is hard to predict here. Its median across 337 logs is 28 feet, but the middle half runs from 16 to 69. That matters because casing usually runs from the surface down to rock. A lot at the shallow end needs a short run of steel pipe and one at the deep end a long one, and the difference shows in the price.
Total depth is steadier, with three in four of the 710 logged wells finishing at 80 feet or less. Residential well drilling takes in drilling, casing and test-pumping, and what a new well costs shows how footage and casing add up. PA DEP permit assistance is part of the job.
Across the 635 logs that record a yield, the median is 7 gallons a minute, with a quarter at 4 or less and a quarter at 18 or more. A well at the low end can still supply a house if the submersible pump draws no more than the well returns and the pressure tank keeps it from short-cycling. At the high end, a larger pump or a constant-pressure upgrade becomes realistic. Both ends turn up among the logs within 5 miles, so a flow test on your own well comes before any pump is chosen or swapped. The crew for this area works out of the Cortland office, (330) 828-6060.
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 PLATEA CHOOSES CHATFIELD
Rated 4.7 on Google across 104 reviews. Here is what working with us looks like, in a customer’s words.
“Chatfield Drilling replaced a submersible pump, extended our well casing above ground, and installed a sanitary cap at our farm house. This is our first experience with a well. Both Matt and Sam were happy to answer all of our questions, no matter how small, in a way that we could understand and enabled us to make informed decisions.”
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
Our Cortland office (7115 Hoagland Blackstub Rd. Unit C, Cortland, OH 44410) is about 70 minutes and 61 miles by road from Platea. Service calls for Platea are scheduled from there.
Platea and the municipalities around it: Girard Township, Cranesville, Girard, Albion, Elk Creek Township, Lake City, Franklin Township, Springfield Township, Conneaut Township, Fairview 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 710 domestic wells within 5 miles of Platea: the median is 60 feet deep, and the middle half fall between 45 and 80 feet. The median well was logged at 7 gallons per minute. Drillers reached bedrock at a median of 28 feet. Your own well's depth depends on the ground under your lot.
Not reliably. The local logs run from 4 gallons a minute or less to 18 or more, and depth to rock from 16 feet or less to 69 or more, so two wells in the area can need different casing and different pumps. Your own well's log, if you have it, and a flow test are the numbers to work from.
Iron is a regular finding in the county. Erie County's USGS record found 33% of the 251 wells sampled above 0.3 mg/L, the line where iron starts to stain, with a median of 0.18 mg/L. A water test shows which side of that line your well is on. If it's above, a FerronX Iron System removes iron and manganese for the whole house.
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 PROBLEMSThe signs, what causes hardness in our region, and how to confirm it.
YOUR NEXT STEP
Tell us what you’re noticing. We’ll come out from Cortland, test your water, and walk you through the next step.