Contents
It is very important for the house and the dacha to have water. Some lucky people can connect to a public water supply, but most have to find their own source. How to find water on the site yourself, with your own hands, will be discussed further.
Aquifers and their occurrence
The rock structure is very heterogeneous. Even in one area at a distance of a meter, the “pie” – the composition of the layers and their sizes – can differ significantly. That is why it is so difficult to find water on the site, you have to drill several wells to find a normal aquifer. There are three main aquifers:
- Verkhovodka. The depth of occurrence of such waters is up to 10 meters. There is a top water, as a rule, under the first water-resistant layer – clay. In some areas, the top water is already at a depth of 1-1,5 meters, which does not please the owners of such sites – there are many difficulties. Verkhovodka – water, to put it mildly, is not of very high quality – it contains dissolved chemicals from the fields, and other pollutants. It can be used for irrigation, and in order to bring it to a state of drinking, a multi-stage purification system is required.
In each region and even in each area, aquifers are located differently. - Sandy aquifer. Such wells are called “on the sand” lie at a depth of up to 30 meters. The water at this level is already cleaner – having passed a multi-layer “filter” of different rocks, it has already been purified. An aquiferous sandy layer is usually located under one of the underlying water-resistant layers (again, these are clays). The disadvantage of such wells or wells is a large amount of sand in the water, which requires good multi-stage filtration. It is better not to use vibration pumps in such sources – they raise sand.
- Artesian waters. The aquifer at this level is usually limestone. The depth of occurrence is about 50 meters. The water is always very clean, with a rich mineral composition. The disadvantage is the great depth, therefore, the cost of drilling is high, and the pump is also expensive. But artesian wells may not dry out for decades.
I must say that it is not difficult to find a perch on the site. Knowing some features of the vegetation, checking some points, you will determine the location of the water carrier with a fairly high accuracy.
With an aquiferous sandy layer, everything is much more complicated – the depths are serious, you have to focus mainly on the location of the wells near the neighbors, and not some indirect signs.
You can find artesian water on the site only with the help of test drilling. Maps of the occurrence of aquifers can help. Since 2011 in Russia they are in the public domain (without payment). To get a map of your region, you need to send an application to ROSGEOLFOND. You can do this on their official website, or you can download the forms of the required documents, fill them out and send them by mail (with acknowledgment of receipt).
How to find water on the site using folk methods
There are many folk ways to search for water on the site. You can believe in them, you can not believe, but on average, the percentage of hits is 70-80%, which is not lower than that of “scientific” methods, so it’s definitely worth a try. These methods require a certain amount of time and attention, but are free (if you look for water in your area yourself), so it is quite possible to combine them – test several methods, and dig / drill at the point where their readings converged.
Paying attention to plants
This item makes sense only if the site is not developed, but “populated” with wild plantations. By where and what plants grow quite accurately, you can determine the depth of water.
All you need is to walk around the site, look where it grows, put poles near the plants found, on which you can indicate the possible depth of water. The table shows a list of plants that can be used to determine the presence of water at a particular depth.
| Plant – indicator | Depth of perch |
|---|---|
| Cattail, wild rosemary, downy birch | 0 – 1 m |
| Sandy reed, buckthorn, wheatgrass, | 1 – 3 m |
| Reed, loach, sarsazan, spruce, blackberry, raspberry, black poplar | up to 5 m |
| Panicled wormwood, whose brilliant, heather, common pine, bird cherry, English oak, | up to 7-8 meters |
| Licorice, sandy wormwood, yellow alfalfa (up to 15 m), juniper, hazel, cornflower, bearberry, beech | from 3-5 to 10 meters |
There are several types of trees in the table. This is not about arrays, but about single plants, maybe a small group of plants that “bunch” in one place. In the case of herbaceous plants, the opposite is true – these are not single specimens, but clearings that occupy a certain area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe soil.
Using frames
On a long-established site, it will not work to determine by the plants where the water is located. Here other methods will have to be applied. One of the most common and highly probable is the search with the help of frames – aluminum wires bent at an angle of 90 °. This method is also called dowsing. They take two pieces of wire 30-40 cm long. A piece 10 cm long is bent at a right angle.
To make the “readings” more accurate, the short parts are inserted into tubes made from thin branches of a tree-like elderberry. In the cut branches of elderberry, the core is taken out, a bent wire is inserted inside. The ends of the wire must move freely.
Taking the frames in both hands, the ends of the wires are moved in opposite directions (by 180 °) and they walk around the site with them, observing their condition. Somewhere the frames will converge together, somewhere they will turn in one direction (to the right or left – along the flow of water). It is by these movements that they determine where the water is.
If the frames come together (their ends move at some angle), there is water in this place. Going further, you will see that the frames have diverged again – the aquifer has ended. You can repeat the maneuver from different directions and points, so you can localize the location of the water carrier. If during the return passage both frames converged, you have determined the place where you need to dig a well or make a well. If the frames deviated to the right or left, you need to go in that direction and look for a place where they will converge again.
If the frames are motionless, there is no water on the site or the water carriers are located very deep.
Using a vine (wooden slingshot)
You can find water on the site with a slingshot made of wood. You need to find two branches that grow from the same point. The branches should be thick, at least 1 cm, even. Try to find them of the same thickness. They must be cut off with a piece of the trunk (15-20 cm) on which they grew. You should get a big slingshot.
The leaves are cleaned, the thin ends of the rods are cut off, leaving at least 40 cm on each side of the “fork”. The branches are bent to the sides so that the angle is at least 150 °, they are fixed in this position and left to dry. The wood may not be completely dry, but the corner should be preserved.
The dried vine is taken by the ends of the fork, held horizontally at shoulder level. In the place where there is water underground, part of the trunk will tend to the ground. In this place it will be possible to dig a well or drill a well. If there are no deviations, there is no water in the area at a shallow depth.
Determining the amount of water in an underground source
In addition to finding water, it would be nice to determine its volume as well. Approximately they can be estimated using clay pots and silica gel. They take clay pots, pour silica gel into them, tie the neck with cotton cloth. Packed pots are weighed (the weight can be written on the pot itself). Prepared shells are buried in places where water is supposed to be found and left for a day.
A day later, the pots are dug up and re-weighed.
The pot that has gained the most weight marks the vein with the most water.
Finding water – watching nature
You can find water on the site simply by observing nature. You have probably noticed that in some places the fog is the thickest. Sometimes it even resembles a river – meandering stretches in some direction. At such points, groundwater is usually the closest. Still need to in the morning to look at the amount of dew. If in places where the fog was especially thick, there is more of it, then there is definitely water there.
What else can help you find water on the site is the observation of insects. On a warm windless evening, midges often gather in clouds or pillars. And they are located in certain places. Under the places of accumulation of insects are usually located sources of water. If you examine the ground in that place and do not find ant nests, then there really is water there – ants do not make their nests above the water.
How to determine the level of groundwater
You can roughly estimate at what depth the perch is located by the plants growing above it. As can be seen from the table above, certain types of plants feel fine if the water is not above and not below a certain depth. So you can roughly estimate how deep the water is.
For areas where there is a natural reservoir nearby – a river, a lake – it is possible to determine the depth of the water occurrence with an accuracy of up to a meter. For this you need a barometer. With it you go down to the water itself, measure the pressure. Then go to the alleged water source and measure the pressure there. The difference is usually expressed in tenths and every tenth (0,1) is equal to a meter of depth. For example, the measurement difference is 0,7 mm/Hg. pillar. This means that the water is at a depth of 7 meters.
What else can help find water on the site? Communication with neighbors who already have a well or well. It is desirable to find out from them where they drilled / dug, how many times, whether there is a lot of water or not, at what depth the water mirror is, what quality it is. By the location of all the nearest successful and unsuccessful attempts at the neighbors, it is possible with a fairly high degree of probability to determine where you have water.