You can have a natural gas leak inside or outside your home also. Our propane tank is quite a ways away from our house but I do see them a lot closer to homes but I never thought the risk was greater than a natural gas leak.
Interestingly, to me, when I am at a Costco in Southern Utah or a Wal-Mart in Northern AZ, I often see the pioneer style women in the long 1800s dresses, usually blue, with the big pompador style bangs and braid down the back.
On Propane, it’s no big deal, we’ve had it on and off for 30 years, the only difference is that the appliances must have a propane converter (just the diameter of the opening.) I would not really worry about propane and wells and septic, check it out, but don’t decide to avoid a region because of it.
@somemom - Yes, polygamy is a very real thing in Utah and parts of Arizona. Children of a polygamist clan attended HS with my kids in Park City, which is far from where you’d expect to find polygamous compounds. There are lots more of them in southern Utah and northern Arizona.
I’m a “live and let live” kind of guy, but the damage to children bothers me.
And welfare and tax fraud.
Has the OP contemplated southern Oregon? I’ve heard some nice things about the Grants Pass, Medford and Ashland areas.
Bend Oregon is awesome.
I sort of disagree here with regards to wells. Be very, very careful about the water situation if you live anywhere in the desert SW:
- Hitting water is never a guaranteed thing,
- Wells can be very expensive to drill, depending on where you live (where I am, the going rate is $55/ft, including casing, and well depths are 300-500ft on average)
- Wells have lifespans. That water will not just continue to flow forever… over time, the pores of the well walls become clogged with salts and other minerals that are in the water, and the well recharge rate decreases as a result. Depending on the TDS levels in your water, wells can last as long as 100+ years to as little as 5 years before they need to be re-drilled or fracked. Lifespan of a well depends a lot on the quality of water in your particular location, and water quality can vary substantially, even over small distances. In addition to all of this, the water table can drop over time depending on how dry the weather is in the area, and how many people are drawing water from the ground.
- Finding qualified well drillers can be a major PITA. It’s a very informal industry in a lot of ways, and as such, you often won’t have a bunch of options to choose from when selecting a driller.
Bottom line here, while I wouldn’t necessarily avoid a house with a well (or a piece of land that needs one for that matter), be sure to do your homework before buying. If buying an existing house, be sure to ask when the well was drilled, ask for a ground water quality report, and if possible, see if you can have a well driller or plumber come out to inspect it. You might find, for instance, that by getting a water quality report, the TDS levels in the water are so high that the well will be prone to failing often.
Just be careful. Wells aren’t cheap… and here in the southwest, they can be very expensive to both drill and maintain!
Thank you @fractalmstr. Post #106 is very helpful.
In addition to the initial set-up of a well, there are ongoing costs with part replacements. Pumps fail and need to be replaced, cables fray, etc.
Plus side:
No water bills.
You could live off the grid w/well/septic and some way of generating power/heat on your own so when the zombie apocalypse strikes, you’ll have an advantage. 
Good points, @fractalmstr , my experience with wells in not in the SW, though even the rainy PNW is having well issues these days:
About zombie apocalypse, I am ok with dying with everyone else. No need to be prepared for that. I may look into solar energy since it is in a sunny place. That to save the environment. Otherwise, being off grid is pain in general.