Potable household cisterns
Buried, freeze-protected storage for full-time domestic use — hauled-water or well-fed, sized for real occupancy, not just a cabin weekend.
Water Storage & Cisterns
Underground water storage & cistern contractor in Colorado
Your well fills the tank at its own pace. Your house gets the water it needs, when it needs it. Buried cisterns and submersible booster pumps for mountain and rural Colorado.
Potable & non-potableBuried & freeze-protectedSized for your propertyFire storage too
Low-yield well. Reliable household water.
Why a cistern fixes a weak well
Many mountain wells don’t run out of water.
They run out of speed.
Take a well that makes 2 to 5 gallons a minute. That sounds fine until you look at what a house actually asks for. A shower, a washing machine filling, someone flushing while the dishwasher runs—the demand adds up fast. If the house asks for water faster than the well can supply it, the water level drops and the pressure can fall off. Without proper protection, running dry can damage the pump.
Here’s the thing: over a full day, that same well may make plenty. A well that can sustain 2 gallons a minute produces 2,880 gallons in 24 hours—almost 3,000. A household using around 300 gallons a day needs only a fraction of that. The well may have the water. It just can’t deliver it fast enough at the moment you want it.
A cistern separates the two jobs.
01 / Refill
The well fills the tank.
It fills at a controlled rate matched to what the well can sustain, with recovery time as needed. A float or level control shuts it off when the tank is full. Low-water protection stops the well pump before it runs dry. The well gets to work at its own pace.
02 / Supply
The house draws from the tank.
Two thousand gallons of storage can carry the morning’s showers and laundry, with capacity sized for your household and guests. Those peak demands draw on the reserve instead of asking the well to keep up in real time. The well quietly catches up between uses.
The pressure comes from a second pump.
A deep well pump already has to lift water a long way. When household demand exceeds the well’s recovery rate, that system can struggle to keep up. The cistern separates water production from household pressure.
Our typical setup uses a buried Norwesco-style polyethylene cistern with a submersible booster pump inside the tank. The booster draws from stored water and sends it through permanent rigid piping to the house. We size the pump and pressure controls for your fixtures and elevation, so showers and faucets have steady pressure within the system’s designed capacity. That’s the part you’ll feel every single day.
What else you get
- A reserve. Stored water buys time if the well pump fails or the source is interrupted. Household pressure during an outage needs backup power or a suitable gravity arrangement. Fire reserve and access can be designed to your fire district’s requirements.
- Better pump protection. Proper fill controls and dry-run protection reduce stress on the deep well pump. The goal is controlled run time and fewer unnecessary starts—not short cycling.
- Options if the well gets worse. A cistern can accept delivered potable water when designed for hauling. You can refill the tank even if the well needs repair.
The short version
If your well makes enough water over the day but can’t keep up at busy times, a cistern can bridge that gap.
The tank lets the well work slow and the house work fast.
The submersible booster pump supplies the pressure. We size the tank to your household, set the fill controls to your well’s sustainable yield, and protect the well pump from running dry. We also check your existing well permit and local installation requirements. Storage does not expand the uses allowed by your permit.
Talk to us about your wellLearn more: Penn State Extension on low-yield wells · Norwesco cistern tanks · Colorado well permitting.
Systems we design & install
Irrigation & non-potable
Storage for landscape, pasture, livestock, and agricultural use, sized to your draw and refill cycle.
Estate & ranch water systems
Larger-volume storage and distribution for estates, ranches, and multi-structure properties.
Off-grid & remote supply
Water where the grid and the well aren't — remote, rocky, steep parcels are our normal.
Fire-suppression storage
Cisterns sized to your fire district's water-supply requirement, connected for draft or a dry hydrant.
Delivery, setting & hookup
We haul, excavate, set below frost, backfill, and connect the tank, pump, and distribution — start to finish.
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Questions
How much does an underground cistern / water storage tank cost in Colorado?
It depends on tank size, excavation, access, source, and pump requirements. We quote the complete installation for your actual site and water use.
Is a cistern really an alternative to drilling a well?
A cistern can supplement a low-yield well or store delivered potable water. Whether hauled water can serve as the primary supply depends on your property and local approval requirements.
Will a cistern satisfy the county requirement for occupancy?
Requirements vary by jurisdiction and property. We check the proposed water source, storage capacity, and installation with the local authority before treating a cistern as an approved supply for occupancy.
What size water storage tank do I need?
It comes down to household size, whether the cistern is your only source, your refill method (hauled vs. well-fed), and whether it doubles as fire storage. We size it with you so you're not paying for volume you'll never use — or running dry.
How is the cistern filled and pressurized?
A permitted well or approved delivered-water supply fills the tank. Our typical well-fed installation uses controlled filling, a buried poly cistern, and a submersible booster pump inside the tank to feed the house through permanent rigid piping.
Can the same tank handle both household and fire-protection water?
A combined system may be possible with the fire district’s approval. Required fire reserve, access, and connections must be designed into the system so household use does not consume the required reserve.
Water Storage & Cisterns across Colorado — by county
Teller CountyEl Paso CountyPark CountyChaffee CountyFremont CountyCuster CountyHuerfano CountyDouglas CountyElbert CountyJefferson CountyBoulder CountyLarimer CountyClear Creek CountyGilpin CountySummit CountyEagle CountyGrand CountyGunnison CountyLake CountyPueblo CountyAdams CountyArapahoe CountyWeld County