Replies

1. 
   Mike_Krall | May 04, 2001 05:06pm | #1

   *
   Stray,
   A flow rate of 9-10 gpm would be better. If this well was "dug" with a rotary rig, the drilling process may have sealed off some of the available flow (there have been posts on this "caking" within the last 30 days... either here or at http://www.jlconline.com, I don't recall which).
   The finding of water (oil, gas, etc.) has NEVER been a guarranteed activity... your relative has water, which beats the alternative by a bunch. A neighbor (across a small year-round stream and about 1/2 mile from my 210', 40gpm well) got dust and a bill for 635' of trying.
   There are three basic ways to figure out where to drill for water: Pick a spot that "looks good"; have a geologist tell you "the formations in this area have/haven't been known to be water bearing"; have a dowser pick a spot. Which of these three methods you use is "attitudinally" dependent... I have watched three dowsers look for water (seven times total) and the wells that were drilled, either on the exact spots or along a line connecting these "exact spots" produced useable water in useable volumes... proof, right?
   Supposedly,(you know how "supposedly" goes...) dowsers/geologists/others do not have a good history of calling depths or flow rates although they do have a good history of "finding" water.
   Annecdotally, I watched a dowser "find" a buried water line she did not know was there. Everytime she crossed this line she said "...there's water here, but it is weak". On this same search, she found a spot she said had the stongest "pull". This was the same spot 5 other dowsers had "found" over a number of years (a "blind test" by an old indian trickster)... he never drilled a well so I don't know if there is water there or not, but the dowsers do...

1. 
   PDF | May 04, 2001 05:24pm | #2

   *We hired a dowser for our new property and hit water at 200 feet. Our next door neighbor went 900ft and hit nothing. EEK! Ours is only 3 gpm, but that's what we currently have and it is totally adequate. 5gpm should be fine.One thing I should add is that 3gpm is fine for us for just domestic use. We live at 9000 ft in Colorado, so we don't have a lawn or a garden or livestock, all of which are forbidden with standard well permits issued here. So, perhaps our water demands are lower than most. We used this method ourselves on our current property when we needed to locate the water line. We found it easily with two metal rods and had the backhoe dig down to it. Worked perfectly. I'm a believer.

1. 
   piffin_ | May 05, 2001 02:30am | #3

   *I'm a believer. A guy on my crew told me how to try doing it to find water lines and electrical - just for giggles - before the utility guy came out. On three lines I was only off a couple of inches from what they marked with sophiosticated equiptment. Next time I had to locate a well, I tryed it and came up with over 40 gal/min. The owner also wanted another well onm the other side of the property where I couldn't find sign and when we drilled the well twice as deep we only had about 5gal/min

1. 
   Allyson_Stiles | May 05, 2001 02:34am | #4

   *We just had one drilled 1 week ago. They drilled 200 feet and got 25 gallons/min. They were a good crew. It doesn't always come out that good.Billy

1. 
   Mike_Krall | May 05, 2001 04:13pm | #5

   *Stray, If there is a need for water use above the wells flow rate, you can put in a holding tank. You pump to the tank and run a supply pump to your use.

2. 
   Stray_ | May 05, 2001 04:13pm | #6

   *
   What do people think of dowsers?

   A relative hired one. Old crusty guy, with a long standing reputation around for dowsing wells. He picked a spot 100' further from her house than she wanted, but said "Big flow only 70' down"

   225' down and $4,500 later the driller finally hit a 5GPM flow...
   but she's stuck digging 100' more trench to lay the electric and water line to the well casing

   Is a rate of 5gal/minute good? So-so? Anyone had a positive dowsing experience?

   -Stray