Finding Water / Borehole Drilling

Borehole sounding device with sealed depth and water level sensors Document Type and Number: United States Patent 6923252 Link to this Page: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6923252.html

Abstract: A borehole device having proximal and distal ends comprises an enclosure at the proximal end for accepting an aircraft cable containing a plurality of insulated conductors from a remote position. A water sensing enclosure is sealingly attached to the enclosure and contains means for detecting water, and sending a signal on the cable to the remote position indicating water has been detected. A bottom sensing enclosure is sealingly attached to the water sensing enclosure for determining when the borehole device encounters borehole bottom and sends a signal on the cable to the remote position indicating that borehole bottom has been encountered.

Thanx, I will look into that, but it sounds expencive.. Will have to import...I am in africa..

Try using the twig then

HI Uncle Sarel, Waar bly Oom? As Oom nou in Suidlike Afrika bly kan ek miskien n hand by sit. Geniet jou dag verder.

Ja nee. Dis my land dis my huis hierie...Weet jy iets van boorgate af?

Ek sal oom die outjie se cell nomer of e-mail adress te kry wat ons boorgat gesink het.

For a moment I thought I would translate your deep thoughts and high ideas and into English, but than decided not to, as I am sure everybody here do speak Afrikaans, and those ignorants who don't, who the hell care about them.

Wangito.

If you can ask your neighbours at what depth they hit water and then compare that to a topographical map, you may be able to determine if there is a body of water down there or if it is more like an underground stream than a lake.

In Australia we have the "Water Resources Commission" who map know locations and depths of what we call the "water table". This can be a huge cost saving in determining where to dig. It can also have a down side as they like to then sell you a licence to operate the bore to an approved quantity per year. It is all part of the fun of living in a dry continent.

twigs work, but not for all people. My father in-law found water, hot springs,sewerlines etc. very accurate. He showed how to hold the twig or a straight stick with a small bend in the middle.He would lay the stick horizontal with the small bend pointing up. Laying is his hands the bend on the stick would turn down when passing over water. A first I did not believe it worked, but after some training I had the gift for some time and used it succesfully to locate underground pipes. I have not done it for years, and dont know if it still works for me. The twig worked best for me, it needs to be Y shaped and hold the two legs in a little tension and the pointer a little higher than the handles. When pasing over water the pointer will the forced downwards. He showed it to other people to, but not everyone could make it work.

interper

twig method is 100% fake, no matter what other say and yap about anecdotally.

Usually locals that are good at advising you about wells draw on experience about the local water table.

The earth is covered by rock and on top of this is the overburden or earth, gravel, clay etc. The water table exists beneath the earth. Where the earth dips below the water table = pond or lake or river.

So a map of the local geology will be of help. Clay usually does not permit much lateral water flow. Gravel and sand are very good for this. A blind hole into rock is useless unless the rock it fractured and it like gravel.

Some places have buried water or artesian water under a rock cap you need to drill through.

In Pakistan twig is most commonly used to guess about water resorvior under ground and it 100% works not a fake one remember it works if you know the way to use it

and for your info the most personals who do this job in pakistan are illeterate

so they cant have geographical information

Aurizon is absolutely correct about dousing or water divining being a fallacy. I have seen several scientific double blind tests carried out on people that claim than can locate buried objects by divining and the failure rate is 100%. Every single claimant failed abysmally with a 0% success rate. It's total and complete bunkum and will cost you money. I know this will bring numerous claims of success but I would ask anybody that claims that can find water by divining to take part in a double blind test. Till I see somebody that can successfully pass a double blind test on a regular basis its rubbish.

Aurizon also talked about the local geology and again he is 100% correct. You can get a thing called a geological survey map that looks like the one here of the Western Africa region. This map was produced by Commission for the Geological Map of the World. This is a fairly small scale map but you can get much larger scale maps for just about anywhere on earth. I would suggest you get the most detailed geological survey map of you region and if it hasn't already got the bores marked on it add them to the map. This will give you a good idea of what geological features and rock types in your area are associated with ground water. Reading these maps is a bit of an art form but it will give you some sort of idea where and how deep to drill.

While you are searching for your geological survey map it's a good idea to ask if they have a map that shows ground water as well, you never know somebody may have surveyed the region previously and produced a map that will be even more helpful.

These maps are great for general location of underground water bearing strata. However there can be drastic variations within a small region. When I lived in the mountains of southern California, we had a very good water table, but location of a few hundred feet (or less) could drastically affect the depth of a well or how well it produced. If fact one of our neighbors sank at least 3 wells within their 3 acre parcel because the first two either ran dry or encountered other problems. Water producing wells can vary widely due to the condition of the underlying rock, how badly it has been fractured due to seismic activity etc..

Just because you can't explain it doesn't mean it doesn't exist or isn't possible. I worked for a utility company as an underground cable splicer specialist. One time I was totally unable to find an fault location. Some old hydro guy showed me how to dowse for it. Being a sceptic I told him he was full of BS.

Then he challenged me that he could teach me how. Despite my own scepticism he succeeded. Subsequently, in spite of having $15,000 worht of high tech cable fault location tools in my truck I sometimes had to resort to dowsing for some hard to locate faults.

Nope! I still can't explain it, But it does work for me. When all else fails, . . . have faith?

The one million Dollar question... If you ever find the REAL answer to this ,please please make me your partner, and than maybe we can find not just water, how about oil, minerals, metals etc. etc.

I don't know if I can tell you what to do, (can anyone?) But I can certainly can tell you what not to do. NO magician of any kind, NO witches, Any one who comes and tells you "I know for Sure" ,including the driller himself, is lying. Consider only the history of the area in which you want to drill. Geological surveys maybe helpful but I have seen them making BIG mistakes. Find out as much as you can about the type of water found, is it flowing or confined, average depth and Q. Pay close attention to water quality found , it may tell you something about the type of source you are expecting. If your neighbours all have water, and you are in the same flat area with them you most probably have water too. Stay away from foothills or rocky slopes. if a valley, try to drill in the middle of it. But best of all, if you have the funds, Drill a small bore hole say 4-6 inches to a depth, and see what you have down there. It may not tell you much about flow, but you can tell about existence, recovery time etc. And if negative you will minimize the loss, If positive than just enlarge the bore hole and your losses are again minimals, and be soon forgotten if you find what you need. Stay away from mud drilling if you expect low yields, if this is a production well (Bigger one) make sure you have a gravel filter,(at least 4" thick) and the right size.Make sure your casing is lowered after all drilling are done. (no simultaneous drilling) use spiral screens SS or at least galvanized. not slotted pipes. And best, try to find a reputable honest driller (Not impossible)

Get wet

Wangito.

Well, I am in mineral exploration for gold and massive sulfides.

There are a number of geophysical methods that attempt to give you some idea.

1 walk the ground...sample the rock and try to determine the bedrock geology. Refer to exisiting work in various state and national files.

2 fly a magnetic survey, AFMAG, gamma and a gravity survey and a few others. Called aerial geophysics

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&lr=lang_en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=%22aerial+geophysics%22&spell=1

3 based on 1 and 2, drill a number of possible areas are selected as hole targets.

A typical 500 meter drill hole costs $30,000(varies with diameter) and returns actual core samples from the area. These are inspected for rock type along the hole(called logging the hole) and selected areas are assayed. Once you get your assays back you then determine if any of the targets is potentially economic and you drill in a radius around the discovery hole to find the extent of the potential ore body. In addition, once you know what looks good, you can repeat drill similar geophysical targets nearby. Once you get all the data you then plot the data on a 3D mapping system, like Rockware or Borsurv and you get an image of what the ore body lookes like

http://www.uno.ca/chester_3d.html

Depending on where you are located, and what your intended use of the water is, will control your luck with drilling for water. In the US and most western countries, records are kept for wells which commonly have information of depth to water bearing formation, yield and type on well. This will help you to find water.

If you do not have records, sand and gravel deposits will have the greatest yield (capacity) and are usually found in river-valleys (alluvial deposits) in temperate climates, and dry river beds in deserts. They can be found by shallow wells but water quality will have the greatest influence from surface contamination.

Karst or limestone deposits will also bear water, their yield will depend on the fracturing found in the rock formation. Channel's do form in the formations and will allow water to flow laterally which can be seen on some limestone cliff wall as though the water is appearing out of nowhere. Well will be beep, and the water will be "hard" meaning lots of minerals, but will have the least influence from surface contamination.

Shales produce the least water and are generally though of as an aquaclude because they have a low transmisity.

What you are referring to is water witching/dowsing. Since you already have access to a computer you should look up the international dowsing society or simply find a good willow branch with a sturdy Y branch that is not dried out and start dowsing.

If the water is close the willow switch wll point down to it. some folks do it with a wire coat hanger as well.

I use a camel. They work well, but are hard to carry and some of them bite.

Here's my own experience, Maybe all here can learn something from it...:

One evening I was walking down main street, It was drizzling and cold. Suddenly I see walking towards me is an old lady, she looked to be in her early seventies,and well dressed. Coming close to me she looked at me and said: "Hello young man" , "Hello" I responded. "I have a question for you" she said. "go ahead " I replied. "Look well at me and tell me what you see". "Well," I said, "I see a nice old lady well dressed.." "no no no" She said "you are just like all the others, Look at me, I am a witch and over two thousand years old. I have got a problem that was left in me from once being a human, for which I need your help. Every thirty to forty years I need to make love to a human being. Terrible, but if not, I may lose my powers. So I look for someone just like you and We do it, and than I make him very very rich. Interested?" she said. "Come on, " I said, "give me a break". "OK young man, you just lost the chance of lifetime" . "Goood buy now" and off she started to walk away. "Wait a second" I said, "What do you mean rich?" "filthy rich" she responded "Filthy filthy rich." "and how can I be sure of that?" I asked. "Listen well my dear" the lady said, "I haven't got all night to negotiate with you. We either go now, or just be stupid and forget your future." Well to make a long story short, off we went, and it WAS difficult, let me tell you my friend. She was happy like a puppy, and I was seeing myself zipping Margaritas on some tropical beach... While dressing up I said "Well, my dear, now comes your part of the deal. "come here my dear boy" she said "how old are you?" "Me?" I replied, "Forty two years, Why? "Forty two years," she said, "Forty two years old, and you still believe in witches?"

Take heed, She might appear and offer you to find deep waters, who knows...

Wangito

The best scientific information suggests that witching with willow twigs or wires is not effective. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that witches may have an intuitive grasp of hydrology or geomorphology in their area that helps guide their recommendations. People still use them and find water where the witch indicated it should be. Sorcery? Junk science? Who knows? Find one that will post a performance bond and go drilling! If you don't hit water, let the witch pay the driller!

The best advice is to understand the geology of your area and where the water is typically encountered. If well logs are available for nearby wells, draw cross sections between them and try to understand where the water was encountered and why it is there.

Consulting a local geologist or hydrologist may be worthwhile since they should be able to recommend site specific techniques for finding water and well construction. Depending on the cost of the well and your budget, this could be a very good investment.

I've seen my Grandfather find shallow water with brass brazing rods. He even tells about finding water for his small church after the well driller missed water twice on the same property. My father can locate burried electrical cable but hasn'e ever tried to locate a water well. It's really cool to watch two brass wire move from parallel to perpendicular and then back. It's even cooler to find something under the "X."

yes water witching is hard to believe but I will add my own experiance just to help keep the pot boiling. I bought eighty acres in eastern colorado, bare land no water phone or utilities. Conventional wisdom among the local residents was there was no good water on this section(one square mile.) The nearest neighbor, about three miles away drilled a well that produced only about three gallons per minuet. I hired a "witch" who used of all things a pair of uninsulated pliers. As she walked about with palms up and pliers open she crossed an area where the pliers snapped shut and pointed down. She said drill here. Against the advice of the driller who wanted to use the state hydrology maps and drill in a place several hundred feet away we drilled were the "witch" said there would be water. The well came in at 300 ft and produced better than ten gallons a minuet. 15 years later that well still produces some of the cleanest sweetest water I have ever tasted. By the way witching doesn't work for me. Tried several times and nothing

Wow, ten gallons per minute is still a dry well for most applications. Also, if the water is sweet it is not very clean.

10 GPM will run most houses and even a fair number of them. 600 GPH = 3 tons of water/hour .

It is small for industrial use if there is no recycling. with recycliing it can be quite adequate, but not good for large scale irrigation unless you use the drip method

Dousing is not scientific; when it works it is likely because 90+ % of the worlds fresh water resides as groundwater in aquifers, so in most all places some water is available, but at what depth is the question. Water in aquifers typically flows at < 1 meter/day through the ground towards streams where they feed rivers, lakes, etc. Long periods of drought in the recharge of the aquifer from rain or snow will typically cause the water table in the aquifer to fall.

If you have access to topgraphical maps or geophysical reports for the area to be drilled that will probably provide the best information about where there is water available and it's depth. If there are other water wells in the area, it is usually worthwhile to discuss the depth at which other local wells found water to get a feel how deep a borehole is required. As the type of soil, etc. can significantly impact the difficulty or practicality of drilling, once you have the above information it is worhtwhile to consider the capability of the drilling rig to be used.

Conducting numerous Hydrologic/Geologic studies myself, I can tell you even in alluvial aquifers the water table and water quality can vary. In aluvial deposits, a rule of thumb is to take a couple wells upgradient and a couple downgradient, and assume a water table is a flat plane between them (interpolate). Then take the elevations of the top of wells and your location and back calculate the estimated depth. This usually gets you with in a few tens of feet (need to drill into the water bearing strata). Drill pilot borings first and have them logged properly. Pilot Borings are cheaper then full production wells. If you need a specific yield or water quality, set temporary wells and test the pilot borings. Temporary wells can be quite cheap compared to full production wells. If shallow enough, such pilot boring studies can be conducted by direct push technology, which is even cheaper. There are also geophysical methods to test from the surface. These are not very precise and usually expensive. If you are in a fractured rock aquifer, water can be extremely hard to locate and it follows lines of continuity through the rock fractures. Lacustrine will have continuous well-defined layers of clays (aquitards) and coarser materials (aquifers) interbedded, find a substanitial layer of coarser material, much like alluvium. I would not trust a water witch for any serious water production wells, except maybe for the entertainment value.

The problem with so called dousing is that as soon as you introduce a double blind test it suddenly ceases to work.

There are several possible scenarios that could explain this but I think the most likely is that the person doing the dousing has a certain amount of intuitive knowledge on the subject and is unconsciously pointing to where they believe whatever they are looking for is.

You can see the same sort of think happening with people that genuinely believe they are clairvoyant. The questions they are asking of the audience are broad and general but act a filtering process that give the clairvoyant a subject that fits the picture they have in their head. There are also subtle feedback mechanisms going, for example you will often see a so called mystic say you had a relative called Daaa-- ,Diiii, no Donald. What is happening is that the person on the receiving end responds differently when the start of a familiar name appears to which the clairvoyant responds and it appears they have intimate knowledge of the subject. This can all be happening at a subconscious level and the clairvoyant may genuinely believe that they are indeed gifted.

The problem with all these mystical things as the moment you introduce a scientifically based double blind method of testing they all fail miserably. Follow my links in my previous post and you will see that dousing also fails catastrophically when the external feed back is removed.

Until I see somebody that can pass a double blind test on a regular basis then the only conclusion that can be drawn that it is all smoke and mirrors.

Does anyone know where to find the specs of a previously drilled borehole (specifically in Tanzania and Kenya). I believe they were dug by the government... thank you!

What about digging near a river or if there is a river that runs through one's property? Is this an indicator that there will be ample water underground also? I understand that pumping water from a river is not always wise.

I'm speaking of coastal durban area.

Thanks

I have a related question, and decided not to start my own thread.

I am trying to figure out the level of the water table under a particular lot, which I am considering buying. The object is not to get water (there is city supply) but to have a dry basement. I can't drill holes because the land isn't mine. Are there any (even rough) surface-based methods?