If you’re familiar with old western movies, you may have seen a character walking around with a forked stick or branch trying to locate a source of groundwater. This method of finding water is called dowsing, and it seems to actually work sometimes. Whether or not these dowsers just get lucky and find water is still up for debate. What’s not up for debate, however, is the proven science and techniques that a groundwater surveyor in California might use to locate water right beneath your feet. Here are a few things to know about the duties of groundwater surveyors and how they go about performing their trade.
What is a groundwater surveyor?
You’ve undoubtedly seen land surveyors out and about on parcels of land, scoping out the property to learn as much as possible about it, like its exact size and dimensions and unique features of the property. A groundwater surveyor, meanwhile, in California maps out the water that’s potentially flowing under the soil. Our groundwater surveyors work in both residential and agricultural capacities, helping people assess the value of their land and/or help them plan where to drill a well on their property.
Why hire a groundwater surveyor?
Groundwater is water hidden in underground aquifers that can be used for homes, businesses and farms to supplement the use of above ground water. If there’s enough of it, groundwater can also act as someone’s sole source of water. But as you may imagine, going around and drilling wells everywhere trying to find groundwater would be time consuming, destructive, expensive and very frustrating. To properly find groundwater, one must hire a groundwater surveyor who will use advanced technologies to tell you if you have any groundwater at all, and where to place a well to get the most out of it.
Due to its usefulness (especially here in California), the presence of groundwater can greatly increase a property’s value. Customers often hire us to conduct research on a piece of property they’re trying to sell in an attempt to raise the land’s asking price. Folks who are thinking about building a home on a plot of land will also call us to see if it’s be possible to place a well on their property near their home to supplement their use of city water.
How do groundwater surveyors detect water?
As mentioned above, we use advanced technology to “look” into the ground to search for the possible presence of water. Our professionals set off a charge into the ground that creates a pressure wave. If the pressure wave travels over a source of water, a disturbance will be detected by our Seismo-Electric Survey Instrument system. The reading from the machine will tell us that there’s water, and also how deep we’ll have to drill to get down to the water. We conduct five of these tests on each piece of property so that our customers will be sure they’re getting the most accurate information.
Don’t go around drilling wells in vain—contact National Groundwater Surveyor Inc. to find out more about all of our agricultural and residential services.
From single family home sites to large agricultural wells, call National Groundwater Surveyor at 800-980-7429.
We also provide Groundwater Surveys in Nevada and Oregon!
