ABC Radio
Sarina Locke asks: Have you ever employed a water diviner - to find groundwater on your place? She then interviews Paul Ferguson, our Senior Geologist about Geo9's approach to groundwater exploration.
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STORY SUMMARY
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Sarina Lock comments that "Geophysicist with a new company Geo9 Paul Ferguson says water diviners have no idea about how it works, and while the metal rods may interact with the geomagnetic field, it's not accurate, and does not measure how deep or the quality of water".
Paul Ferguson responds to comments about and by a water diviner "They're not scientific, it's not based in science, it's based in a belief system. The definition of having a belief is thinking that something is true without any formal proof".
"Being a scientist, we don't use those kind of methods. There is no way of collecting and culminating the data and comparing it to what you've already found out".
"We view our work as risk assessment. We say we can reduce your risk. We certainly can. We say 'drill here or don't drill here' depending on the resolution you want and the scale of the exploration that's being conducted."
"It's an exploration technique and you have to stick with it. Once we've tracked down the aquifers, we can inform you of those".
In response to a question about salinity, Paul adds "We can map for salinity, one of the ways we can do this is by measuring the response to electrical conductivity - the minerals in salty water make it more conductive than fresh water, so one technique we can use is AC (alternating current) technology to measure across a salinity front".
"Also, the technology exists to derive fresh water from salty water within the bore".
When asked to comment about whether groundwater is really an unknown, unquantifiable resource, Paul said "We know a lot about groundwater and can use isotope geochemistry to calculate the flow rates and age of water, although the density of data is not that high".
Sarina Locke asks: Have you ever employed a water diviner - to find groundwater on your place? She then interviews Paul Ferguson, our Senior Geologist about Geo9's approach to groundwater exploration.
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