Breaking News….Water, Water, Everywhere
! - Edwin Chavarria strikes water at FLB… The Karma
Continues
The little rig that
could…
The stories
circulating in the mountains were ominous…Water, when it
could be located was 480’ down suspended beneath solid
bedrock. Friend and neighbor Howie Kramer, who had been
having a well drilled for the nearby community of
Zaragoza, had experienced unbelievable difficulty
reaching water.
Many drillers were
afraid to drill in the area and predicted doom and gloom
results, or had presented the team with outlandish
proposal terms complete with equally ridiculous “gringo”
prices of 10 times the price it would cost to drill in
the US. Undaunted, the partners continued their search
for a well driller that was up to the task and was
willing to price the job fairly. Enter 2nd
generation local well driller, Edwin Gutierrez Chavarria
of Perforaciones Finca Firulina from the nearby town of
Filadelfia (karma here, as partners Al & Deena Benner
live in Philadelphia, and Ray & Darlene Coker met in
Philadelphia.)
We first however
must turn back the clock a few months to a phone
conversation Al had with his Dad one evening as he often
does. Dave Benner was describing to Al a “really
interesting presenter” from the latest Farmer’s Club
monthly meeting (ironically only one true farmer is
still a member, but the organization’s name remains).
That presenter was none other than legendary well dowser
and former President of the American Society of Dowsers,
Leroy Bull (bottom right). Al decided to give Leroy a call since we
had been given such pessimistic information about
finding water. Al and Leroy played phone tag for a
bit until they finally connected and had what Al recalls
as a very “energizing, yet relaxed” conversation.
Leroy explained to
Al that yes he could do a “dowsing” of the property to
locate potential well sites, and best of all he could do
it without setting foot on the finca. This was very
exciting news, and was accomplished by having FLB
partner Ray Coker produce a high quality Google Earth
image of the finca and e-mailing it over to Leroy.
Leroy then proceeded to perform a series of map readings
by passing his hands over the maps, and zeroed in on
three potential well site locations. Not only did Leroy
spot the locations, but he was also able to determine
the depth and flow rates for each potential well site.
The results were
quite interesting to say the least. Two of the
locations, one near a seasonal drainage ravine, and one
close to one of the rivers on the finca, were both
dowsed as having a depth of 150 meters or 480
feet! This left the one other location that actually
was much more centrally located to the community area.
The good news here was that Leroy estimated the depth of
this one to be at only 50 meters (160 feet) and a good
flow rate of 17 gallons per minute.
The partners were
faced with a dilemma – take a shot at this location with
an older rig (Edwin’s) that could only make it to 100
meters maximum, or bring in the big city rig that could
easily drill 150 meters, but would be a LOT more
costly. An interesting thing we learned about well
drilling is that if you start a well and then pull out,
you can’t re-drill it again – you must begin a new
bore. Herein was the rub, as the partners had mixed
opinions on the validity of a well “dowsing”. If they
came up short at this location, they would end up having
to drill two holes at a total of 250 meters and pay 4x
more in the process. Do you
feel lucky, punk?…
While all this was
being bantered about, Al had lined up another local
driller from Nicoya (bottom left) to stop out for a quote. The first thing this
gentleman did was break a “Y” shaped branch off a nearby
tree and begin walking around with the two ends clutched
in his upturned fists. This was done in the area that
the group had pointed him toward (where Leroy had
predicted water at 50 meters). Within just a few
minutes this local driller had several strong “signals”
in the area that jerked the “divining rod” downward.
Next
it was Al’s turn (right in photo). Clutching the stick as he was
instructed, the “rookie” began methodically pacing back
and forth in the same area. For a while nothing
happened, and then as Al tells it, the branch all of
sudden flipped downward, his forearms went weak (similar
to just having just done several wrist curls at the
gym), and he then had a difficult time curling his
wrists back up to raise the stick. This happened two or
three times in the same general area. (We later learned
this is due to an interaction between the iron minerals
in the water and those in the bloodstream)
Soon after this
experience Al convinced the remaining skeptical partners
that this was the spot, and following two photo
confirmations and further zeroing in on the exact spot
by Leroy, the location to be drilled was staked and a
GPS reading was taken.
Now, "skeptical
partners" refers to people who thought this entire
well site
selection process as interesting and to be honest, maybe
a little ridiculous. Yet they were willing to play along
with the pursuit because most hydrologists agree
drilling for water is always a bit of gamble. In
particular Ray was the biggest skeptic, who claims he can't escape years of
graduate work in the scientific method to actually
"believe" even though he took the picture above and
witnessed the event first hand. He says he really did
see Al's arms get pulled down. He just doesn't care to
speculate on cause.
Maybe you have been
a skeptical reader so far too, and that is OK, but...
On Friday, April 20th,
and after 8 days of non-stop drilling (primarily through
very hard rock), while on the phone with Ray reviewing
some legal points, Al receives an e-mail from Site
Manager, Christoph Hubmann that Edwin had hit water – a
deep pocket of it within a very hard rock formation.
Not only was the location where Leroy had predicted, but
the depth was right on too. A column of pure drinking
water now fills the well casing and the flow is 1 gallon
per second. The karma continues….
Now the development
team is even more excited to explore the “window” that
Leroy has described is located on the far side of the
river. When pressed for details, he explained it as a
rare phenomenon that he has only encountered a handful
of times in the past and it exists as a time continuum
of sorts or a way to move into another dimension.
We have not visited the window but have looked down at
the area from one of our ridges. From a distance, the
area does look interesting. The picture doesn't really
convey what is visible, but the growth in the area is
greener and more lush than the rest of the growth in the
area.
Click to see
an enlarged picture.
The
good news according to Leroy is that “the window is
always open”…. Bring your rope just in case : )
Many
thanks to translator Mark Sernatinger and Site Manager,
Christoph Hubmann for their diligent follow up and
correspondence with Edwin during the entire process, and
of course to Leroy Bull for his amazing work. Leroy –
your stay at FLB is on us if you make it to Costa Rica
in the future.
