Water Authority Wary of Claims : Dowsers Come Up Dry at Meeting

Gerald Estep thinks San Diego should forget about grabbing more Northern California water, or fighting seven Western states for new Colorado River supplies, or bankrupting the county to build desalination plants.

Estep says there’s a river running 600 feet deep right under San Diego at a million-gallon-a-minute rate that could supply San Diego with all the future water the county needs.

He says he and his colleagues with the local chapter of the American Society of Dowsers have found the river.

Estep offered the information free of charge Thursday to a handful of board members on hand for his presentation to the San Diego County Water Authority. Estep even brought along two Automobile Club of Southern California maps on which he had marked the approximate path of the river: running west from El Cajon, under Del Cerro, under San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, under Linda Vista, and under Mission Bay to the ocean at a point midway between the Hilton Hotel and the Mission Bay information center.

“We can go with you and show you where the rivers are,” Estep said, adding that another dowser just Wednesday had presented him information showing that a second river runs underground along roughly the same path as the first, at a depth of 4,000 feet and a rate of 780,000 gallons per minute.

“There’s no hocus-pocus involved, no ‘gimme’ money involved,” said Estep, a spry 76-year-old retired Navy commander. “We dowsers have a saying that, ‘If done for mankind, it’s more effective than if done otherwise.’

“And the drilling would cost you a hell of a lot less than any project to bring more water down from Northern California.”

Alas for the dowsing society, the full board later Thursday turned thumbs down on the offer.

“I can’t believe this august body is serious . . . about resorting to voodoo and witchcraft to find water,” member Paul Campo thundered.

“The answer to Mr. Whatever-His-Name-Was is simple,” member Harry Griffen said. “Tell him to provide the water and we’ll be glad to buy it.”

Indeed, John Hennigar, who represents the Valley Center water district in North County, said that his district has an agreement with a dowser to buy any water found and drilled for at the dowser’s cost.

“If they are so convinced of their convictions, then why don’t they get in the business of providing water themselves?” Hennigar said.

Estep and fellow dowser Hammett Fencl conceded during the morning presentation that they have a hard time convincing people that dowsing works. Estep brought along a variety of forked sticks and Y-shaped rods that dowsers use to find water or other substances they are looking for.

Estep, using L-shaped aluminum rods with movable sleeves in the handles, demonstrated his “sixth sense” for the admittedly skeptical board members in attendance. The presentation took place at 11 a.m., two hours before the normal committee meeting time.

Holding his rods, Estep walked behind the board chairman’s chair in the meeting room. “I’m asking if there’s potable water here,” Estep said. Immediately, his rods began to cross back-and-forth. “OK, now I want to know how deep the water is so I’ll ask how deep, in 10-foot increments.” The rods crossed three times. “So it’s 30 feet down.” Estep then asked about the water quality, on a scale of one (best)to nine (poorest). The rods crossed three times.

“Not too good, not too bad,” he said of the quality, as one member laughingly suggested the water authority begin drilling immediately. Estep later determined the per-minute flow at five gallons, based on the rods crossing five times in response to his questions.

“If the water ain’t there, we can’t find it,” Estep said. “But if it works, use it, don’t knock it.” Estep then repeated his questions, but instead asked for water pipes. The rods failed to cross.

Estep talked of dowsers through history, saying that cave drawings from Cro-Magnon men in Spain and North Africa show dowsing. Seeking to negate the image of dowsers as crackpots, he quoted Albert Einstein in a 1947 letter saying, “I know very well that many equate dowsing with astrology . . . yet that is unjustified in my conviction . . . it (dowsing)is the reaction of the human nervous system to factors yet unknown to us.”

Estep claims numerous successes for dowsers in San Diego County and elsewhere. “It’s useful for locating just about anything,” he said. Estep cited Fencl’s work at Fairbanks Ranch Country Club.

Fencl said he dowsed Fairbanks for a private driller, who then found a 300-gallon-per-minute well for the golf course.

The general manager of the company that built the course remembers things a bit differently. Joseph Davis, general manager for Watts Industries San Diego, said that 23 wells were drilled, some with the help of a dowser, some in locations picked by the company itself.

“I do remember that some of the locations the dowser pointed us to came in dry as a bone and some others pumped a lot of water,” Davis said. “I wouldn’t give (dowsing) great success. It’s mixed: There are total failures, some successes and everything in-between.”

A San Diego geology engineer said his firm encounters dowsers often on projects involving discovery of groundwater supplies.

“You get a driller who swears he can find a dowser to guarantee water and indeed, on occasion, they find water--though mostly in obvious locations--but the quantities vary substantially from predictions,” Tiong M. Liem of Allied Geotechnical Engineers said.

Liem said that, in general, water can be found at substantial depths, such as 600 feet, but not in the quantity Estep claims unless there exists a large confined aquifer similar to those in the desert. Water in any amount at 4,000 feet would be highly improbable, he said.

“There are no large aquifers in San Diego County that I am aware of,” Liem said. In addition, Liem said that he knows of no wells that could possibly pump one million gallons per minute even if drilled. “Wells that pump several hundred gallons per minute are quite” advanced, Liem said.