Did Some Water Witching

For a friend today. The location is on top of a hill. I did find water, but not where he thought it would be.

I found out after I witched that he thought he would get away with a 300 ft. well, but I knew before I went there that water would be much deeper than that.

I did locate water at about 300 ft. down, but the flow rate appears to be less than 1 gallon per minute, and until you drill down for holding capacity you are still looking at 400 ft..

The strongest stream I found (more like a river) has at least 50 gallons per minute (by my calculations), but is over 1,000 feet down.
I did find one, it appears to be about 400 ft. down, with a flow rate approaching 10 gallons per minute, but he is still looking at a 500 ft. well considering holding capacity.
I found 5 streams all near the 350 to 400 foot mark. I'm certain that these are offshoots from the main aquifer, but the main aquifer appears to be on someone else's property, in the middle of a plowed field and my back won't take walking thru that to find it.

SWPaDon wrote:For a friend today. The location is on top of a hill. I did find water, but not where he thought it would be.

I found out after I witched that he thought he would get away with a 300 ft. well, but I knew before I went there that water would be much deeper than that.

I did locate water at about 300 ft. down, but the flow rate appears to be less than 1 gallon per minute, and until you drill down for holding capacity you are still looking at 400 ft..

The strongest stream I found (more like a river) has at least 50 gallons per minute (by my calculations), but is over 1,000 feet down.
I did find one, it appears to be about 400 ft. down, with a flow rate approaching 10 gallons per minute, but he is still looking at a 500 ft. well considering holding capacity.
I found 5 streams all near the 350 to 400 foot mark. I'm certain that these are offshoots from the main aquifer, but the main aquifer appears to be on someone else's property, in the middle of a plowed field and my back won't take walking thru that to find it.

Is this for new construction? Or might there be a convenient space that remains frost free all winter?

Cheaper water storage can be had in a plastic tank vs in the bore hole storage. Besides, sometimes the extra pocket drilled will allow water of poorer quality into a otherwise good quality water well.

Well drillers hate this method, but I have helped others with low yield wells to have more water than they can use with a system using properly sized plastic tank storage and some controls.

Yes, this is for new construction. I witched his Uncles place(my BIL) a couple years ago. His water was where I marked it at, but they are very small streams that dry up in mid summer.
The place I witched today, is a 2 acre parcel on top of a hill. The only place he would have for a storage tank would be in his basement, The weather gets extremely bad on that hill.
Even though I witched it, I told him to consult with institutions that map underground water. 1 well is going to cost him in excess of 10 grand at that depth, I don't want him blowing money he doesn't have.

And I agree that drilling deeper could put him thru a coal/sulpher seam that will ruin his water, whether the seam is above or below the water table.

Yeah I have been trying to find the drilled well on my homeplace. I remember dropping gravel into the casing as a mean lil boy just to hear it bounce back and forth in the casing. I was outta the country when they changed to city water. I'm not sure if they just covered the well head or cut it off short and then backfilled it? My father bought the farm a couple of months before I was born in 68. He's passed on now. But I have been trying to find it with a metal detector and with copper wire L shaped? Sorry dosing rods. Had hits but it was usually nails ,tools, ect. Any ideas will be great. Thanks for the ideas!

Actually officially every well location gets recorded. First check with the well driller for his recorded notations.
Gad Luck!!

Knighttime1 wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 19, 2022 11:11 am

Yeah I have been trying to find the drilled well on my homeplace. I remember dropping gravel into the casing as a mean lil boy just to hear it bounce back and forth in the casing. I was outta the country when they changed to city water. I'm not sure if they just covered the well head or cut it off short and then backfilled it? My father bought the farm a couple of months before I was born in 68. He's passed on now. But I have been trying to find it with a metal detector and with copper wire L shaped? Sorry dosing rods. Had hits but it was usually nails ,tools, ect. Any ideas will be great. Thanks for the ideas!

What you are looking for is called a water resource map. I cannot remember if it's the county clerk of courts or that county auditors office that will have it.

Don, you care to elaborate on your dousing technique? What you use, and whatever is on your mind when doing it?

The old guy that was used for nearly every good well around here is passed on now. He used I think a fork out of peach or pear tree. Think it was a peach fork…no pun intended. LOL! Anyway, he could tell you how deep and how many gallons per minute approximately and most people said he was right on the money.

He passed long before I took interest in dousing, so…another missed opportunity. My grandpa always used bent cos hangers but always said his dear friend was the best he ever seen, the guy mentioned above.

I’ve had three wells cave in on this place and currently by code the well has to be moved from where it is now anyway…which leaves me only about a half acre to search for water.

There’s always the option of clearing and cleaning the existing well, but it will cost about half of a new well with no guarantee to fix it. Not money well spent in my mind. Current well is only 45 feet deep and they only cased half of that which is perplexing to me considering the well issued on this place, the cave ins.

Bill,
Don used to post a lot and then a few years ago suddenly stopped. No one was able to establish why.

Paul

I've only watched someone water witch one time that I can recall. Maybe 60 years ago, my grandmother and an uncle demonstrated it. I'm pretty sure they used a Peach branch. When they passed over the well, it did its thing.

Another sad sack here that has no idea where the well actually is. Very old building that was a school, until the early 50's. I'm sure it's a shallow hand dug one most likely. Water table is not far down at all.

Heck...I thought the thread was current. I need stronger specs.