The Witching Hour – Part 3

AESAC is pleased to present a series of guest blogs, reprinted with the courtesy of one of my colleagues, exploring the interesting topic of witching and dowsing.

The Witching Hour
By: Colin Kelly, P. Geo., QPESA

When there are no clues around, witching for underground utilities (or anything else, for that matter) is a meaningless exercise. But out in the real world, many clues do typically exist and the layout of underground utilities are anything but random. That’s why locators are (sometimes) successful in finding a line through witching. Whereas I wouldn’t recommend breaking ground in an area that hasn’t been located using reliable and conventional industry methods, I personally wouldn’t break ground over a witched locate mark either. Neither would many in the excavation industry, who’ve seen it plenty of times with their own eyes. There is a reasonable chance that there is something below that witched locate mark, and it’s not due to magic.

Now when it comes to witching for water wells - the technique is bogus. 100%. Groundwater is essentially everywhere beneath our feet. Save some rarer and extreme geological conditions, groundwater does not exist in localized pockets or underground rivers. The groundwater table does not drop off suddenly. Aquifers are ubiquitous across large areas. Whether a person drills on the northwest or southeast corner of a given property, or any place in between, they are going to hit water at roughly the same elevation.

Despite this, witching for water wells was quite popular in the past and still is in some areas. Part of this is because a water well witcher has a very easy job, they can point at any spot on a property and be correct about 99.9% of the time. Nothing impressive about those odds. Their customers may even sing your praises to friends and family. “So glad I hired that witcher, they said there would be groundwater here and there was!”. Free self-propelling advertisement. Truth is, anyone could have the same level of success. Nothing special to it.

So, what’s the big fuss anyways? For some, water well witching is just a fun ritual for good luck. Fair enough. But the problems come when well locations are overly influenced by witching alone. This can, and has, resulted in wells installed near septic systems or some other potentially dangerous source of contamination. A better bet is to trust a licensed water well driller that is trained and knowledgeable on where to install a safe water well and who is, ultimately, your best resource. 

Colin Kelly, P. Geo., QPESA
Colin is the founder and President of CXK Environmental Consulting, in Waterloo, ON. You can contact Colin at ckelly@cxkenvironmental.com