As I was trolling the WWW the other day I stumbled upon a 1988 publication by the USGS, Water Dowsing:
I had forgotten that the USGS had published something on dowsing, or water witching. For good reason the USGS is not a big fan - no surprise!
My colleague Todd Jarvis has explored the issue in depth. Here is a PDF of a detailed very balanced presentation he prepared in 2007 which I previously posted:
I have never used dowsing or a dowser to ocate a well. My limited experience with dowsers suggests that they are actually very good 'amateur' hydrogeologists who know the area and what features may indicate the presence of groundwater. But what about dowsers who are successful far away from home?
I've seen it used in several instances. In one case, on the coastal plain of Virginia, a dowser successfully located a domestic well. Given that it is tough not to find groundwater in the coastal plain - akin to finding the Cadillac in the haystack - that will provide 5-10 gallons per minute, that was not such a big deal.
The other case was in the Georgia Piedmont - fractured, hard rock territory. It was a success - again, a small-capacity domestic well. The region received over 50 inches of precipitation per year and generally had shallow water tables. If you knew the fracture orientations you had a god chance of locating a good domestic well.
One case in northern New Mexico was unsuccessful - drilling in shale in a low-rainfall region. The driller quit at 300 feet without hitting sufficient water for a domestic well.
Three samples does not say much.
It's true that you can drill a well almost anywhere on Earth and will find groundwater although it may be at great depth, in limited quanity for the proposed use, and of poor quality. In such a case, a dowser might find a well, but for how long will it be producing good-quality water?
What I love are the folks who claim to be able to locate wells in absentia by dowsing maps and charts. Now that's really something! C'mon man!
More information? American Society of Dowsers. Then there is Digital Dowsing.
Suffice it to say that I am not a big fan of dowsing since I know of no scientific evidence to support it. But that doesn't mean it won't work, perhaps for the reasons alluded to above. There is also dumb luck, too, but even we hydrogeologists have been known to use that technique.
Dowsers who have worked for a long time with a good record of success in the same area can be a fgood option if you are looking to locate a well. Probably better than some newly-minted snot-nose city slicker.
So if dowsing floats your boat, then good luck and caveat emptor! But call a hydrogeologist when you're done.
"A fool and water will go the way they are diverted." - Ethiopian proverb
My father was an empiricist and rational to a fault. When I was a teenager, our family's 90+ year old hand-dug well started drying up. I was surprised to catch my dad walking the edge of the woods in search of a dowsing stick. He proceeded to methodically walk transects of the full 1.5 acres of our property. He said he found a few potential sites for the new well. I made fun of him but decided to if I gave it a try I'd have even more ways to give him grief. He advised me on how to hold the stick but didn't tell me where he thought he'd "found water." I walked a few transects. Nothing. I then came upon one spot, on the other side of the property from our old well, and the stick suddenly took a nose dive. I'll say it: it was weird. My dad called the well drillers who had their hydrologist conduct their own, professional, survey. They recommended a well at the same spot the dowsing stick bent in my hands (and my dad's). Dowsing isn't the sort of thing that I'd ever bet money on but that experience definitely made me a bit less skeptical. Oh, this was in the piedmont/Blue Ridge area of northern Virginia where there's a lot of fractured bedrock so good well sites are spotty.
Posted by: Cathy | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 11:41 AM
DOWSING … especially for water … works … and it can work for anyone … think about it … the human body is 70% to 90% … WATER … we are a conduit to water … try it for yourself the results you achieve will be a pleasant surprise…
Posted by: PAUL F MILLER | Monday, 28 October 2013 at 09:03 AM