Well Problems and Private Utilities - Dowsing

So ... My well water started smelling like dirt on the hot tap and started to look yellowish . We ordered a test kit and found traces of coliform bacteria which isn't necessarily a bad thing but could indicate a problem which it did ...

I had a local well service, that had a good rep, come check it out . They found 3 water intrusions . One from an abandoned well line in the side. The other two from electrical lines run into the well.

Although I could probably do the re seal of the well and such I just would rather have someone else to do it despite my lack of money. The DIY part that I will be doing is trenching and running new electrical and water line from the well to the house because I can save a considerable amount of money by doing this myself .

So here comes the part where I mention Dowsing . I had done this a long time ago and was impressed and now that I need to find some cables and pipes on the property that don't involve utility companies this came to mind again.

I just went outside and tried my plastic well pipe that I had and idea of where it was . To my amazement again Dowsing worked rather accurate . I found the well electrical line , the well line currently in service and I think I have found my garage power line from the house now .

I did a test on the electrical line from the power company coming in, the telephone lines and the cable lines and they all were located with the dowsing rods because I had the utility company mark them last year .

So who trust them? Who doesn't? Succes stories? Failures ?

I am digging the original well line the entire way to see how well these rods work . I've also come across some sites on the property I want to check out as the rods indicated something .

I will get back to the well project later but I want to talk about locating underground pipes and cables first . I was thinking of renting a locator that sends a signal over the wires to trace . I wanted to buy one but I don't want a cheep one . Any suggestions ?

Smokeyja wrote:

So who trust them? Who doesn't? Succes stories? Failures ?

At one time, I couldn't do it at all........no idea why. Then several years later, I tried it again, and it worked.

My BIL needed to find water, so I found it. They were several very small streams running across his property, and he was able to go a couple hundred feet down the hill, dig a trench, line with gravel and pipe the water into a holding tank. I like you, I also found his underground electric lines. They were right where I said they were.

The thing that scared me the most, was what I found at my house.

They guy that originally showed me the dowsing technique, showed me where the stream was that is feeding my well. After I was able to do it, I located the stream that he found, but...........the stream has now turned into a lake. It was huge the last time I dowsed several years back. I counted about a 40 foot circumference around my well.

The problem is..........the well is located 6 feet from my kitchen.

Anyone wanna buy a house??

My uncle was a local dowser. He showed me how and it appeared to work. That was back in the seventies. I havn't tried it since.

Kevin

I have found several single 12ga wires buried two feet underground, I routinely find 3/8" copper propane lines, buried phone cables, buried electrical cables and water lines.
One was a 1/4" copper line that fed a gaslight at the end of a persons driveway. He had the light restored to original condition and had a propane conversion done on it. Once it was reset, they had no gas flow from the house. The company doing the install did not have a locator, and went to rent one. We were there cleaning the well when they installed the lamp. I spent a half hour with two tig welding rods locating the line and the homeowner spent twenty minutes uncovering the line to find the cut, I had an area marked that I thought was were the line was broken. The H.O. found the break in the tube where I said it was as I had a strong indication of a crossing lead. that turned out to be a the new phone cable that was had been installed through there.
This house in the past had a private gas well the had gone tits up and had been plugged years before the H.O. had bought the property. He was finishing up a full remodel of the house. THe company that was installing the light, blow the line out, than flushed it with water, than flushed it with methanol, trimmed the ends up and installed a new section of tubing. They had it operating before we left for the day.
Another was looking for a CNG line that fed a large grain dryer, I only missed it by about six inches. The area was criss crossed with buried electrical lines. Determining which lead to follow is more about understanding what kind of fittings are available.
Smokey, PM me before you go to fix the well, I can tell you how to extend the well above the ground. Than you can install a pitless adapter, with a well cap that has a conduit port on it.
Dan.

Like Kevin, we had a local Dowser that showed me how to go about it. My well does not have an above ground head/pipe--whatever you want to call it:) Anyway, I located it with a dowsing stick (flexible crotched apple branch)--pretty COOL, I thought.

Speak to the dead too? ^^

I had mine done by two Dowsers, one being my Dad and another who was an ole duffer named Mr. Kenny.

A cantankerous ole fellow, he saw me building my house and said, "Son, do you want me to witch your well for ya", and so I said, "Humor me Mr. Kenny." So he did, grabbing some rods and going this way and that, up and down and back and forth until he had more steps on his shoes then a busy librarian. Pretty soon proclaimed that "THIS WAS THE SPOT". Ironically it was just where my father said to dig!!

Then he proceeds to say, "Son";...(he always called me son), do you want to know how far down it will be?" And again I told him to, "humor me". So with brass rods in hand, he dipped and struck, hopped and danced, darn near did a an Irish dig and then rushing over, and in putting his arm around me, said , "Son, get a backhoe because water is 17 feet down!"

So after drilling my well to a depth of 290 feet and getting a whopping 2 gallons per minute, I had my doubts. But lets not all rush to judgement on poor ole Mr. Kenny who has since gone on to the great dowsers in the sky (or hades) or whatever the case may be, because after I took a block of wood, a ball of string and dropped it down the well and waited for the block of wood to float the line slack, I measured the ground to the water line at...17 feet.

You see ledge is 17 feet down, and here in Maine anyway, water always lays on top of ledge. The old duffer was right after all.

LOL--RIP Mr Kenny

I was taught as a kid by a local dowser, using two wire rods. I've found gas lines, water lines, electrical lines and septic tanks with them.

There is no "known" scientific reason dowsing should work...except it does.

Works better in warmer weather and after the snow cover is gone.

First time you do it, you can't believe it yourself.
You can feel the rods pull and twist.

Ok so the dowsing worked great until I got closer to saturated ground which made the rods go a little bit nuts beat my septic and grey water . That's ok though they got close enough.

I have my grey water pipe located and the old cast iron septic line located but I don't think that's the one that works now so I'm tracing the pvc pipe from the house to the septic . I had to find these lines because I'm going to need to run the 160psi well pipe under both of them and then into the pump house . I have opted to not rent a trencher . I will dig a 36" trench with a trenching shovel . The ground is soft so it will be fairly easy and save me a lot of money . $189 to rent a trencher for 24 hours plus you have to give them a $300 deposit on a credit card ... I'm also buying all the line and electrical cheaper than the well company would sell it to me for .

I'm beat ... Maybe tomorrow I will throw up some photos .

well damn... The ground is still too wet to do anything .

I always thought people were joking when they talked about this.

Never head the term "Dousing" before. Interesting!

SMITTY wrote:I always thought people were joking when they talked about this.

Never head the term "Dousing" before. Interesting!

The most common terminology that I've heard is 'water witching'.

SWPaDon wrote:

SMITTY wrote:I always thought people were joking when they talked about this.
Never head the term "Dousing" before. Interesting!

The most common terminology that I've heard is 'water witching'.

Stumpwater witchcraft.
Haven't thought of some of this stuff in decades.

Some of the stuff works...sometimes...just not sure why.

"Wart buying" was a common thing.
Procedure varied, but say you have a wart.
I'd say "I'll buy that wart off of you."
Then I'd use a silver coin and rubbing it vigorously back and forth across your wart; usually while saying prayers, asking the Lord grant your relief, etc..

Thing is silver is a pretty powerful antiviral, antimicrobial substance.
And belief in any cure, be it sugar or superdrug, can have a powerful effect on kick starting the immune system.
So who's to say?