New farm... Finding livestock water lines across 126ac?

[paulsharvey]

Ok…this will be my final test of my water witching abilities. 30 years ago when they built our roads and water system, they ran a 1 or 2” poly line across the street from our house to the 10 acre lot. 6 years ago i purchased that lot. I now want to install a water meter on it as there getting ready to start a water hookup fee program that would add $12,500 hook up fee. This lot is exempt for the time being, but for how long is anyones guess.

No one on the water board has any idea where this pipe is located. I ran my metal detector all over the area hoping to find a metal stake as any rational installer would have marked it…..no such luck. Tons of bottle caps, nails, etc. no steel pin except property markers.

So i took up the old dousing rods. After walking one side of the fence i found a positive spot where the rods crossed. I reran test from opposite side, same location. I went on other side of the fence, found same location.

I marked out a 20x20’ grid in white paint and going to have 811 locate mark out area next week. Then well dig down 5 feet and see if i find anything.

I also tried dousing by placing the ends inside a piece of pipe in my hands so my hands cant move the rods. They crossed in same spot.

Since ihave absolutely no idea where this pipe is, only that it’s supposed to have been installed across roadway before road was built, i hope they find something.

Otherwise its another $4,000 to cut the road and attach to main 8” water feed, as we do know where that pipe is.

There are better options than open cutting the road. For less than $4k, assuming this is a two lane road, you can have it HDD/bored. If you local county/city Public Works department doesn't ban it, and you live in a pretty low rock environment, Pneumatic Missile, even cheaper.

 

[5030]

I'm purchasing a 126ac farm and there is the benefit that livestock waterers are scattered across it. However, there is no active water running at them, and I can find no valves. I plan to remove the old waterers and replace them with Hydrants and/or Mirafont waterers, but... I don't even know where the main valve/line is located coming to the 'house/barn'. The lines are across both pastures as well as current bean fields. I'll have access to the pastures, but until the current farmer harvests beans, I won't be able to do anything with them. However, that bothers me less than the fact that I can't even tell if the waterers WORK.

There is no water to them at the moment, which makes me believe there is a master valve somewhere near the barns/house. But I cannot find it. The closest waterer is probably 500yds away and they are scattered from there in all directions. I don't believe there is a sensor wire anywhere, although until I pull a waterer, I won't know for certain. I suspect its black pipe/PVC, but I won't know for certain. But in the high likelihood that there is none, anyone have any ideas about how to figure out this dilemma? The current owner inherited the property, but knows absolutely nothing about it. (Absent family member) I don't believe this would be something on a plat, as it was likely a simple farm addition.

At least if I could find a Master valve, I could open it and then check the waterers.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Learn the fine art of Dowsing. Some people can do (I can), some cannot I use it for locating not only buried water lines but any pipe on electrical conductor.

Have a nice set of copper Dowsing Rods on the shelf at all times.

You have to posess the right 'Karma' for them t work.

 

[Dadnatron]

Learn the fine art of Dowsing. Some people can do (I can), some cannot I use it for locating not only buried water lines but any pipe on electrical conductor.

Have a nice set of copper Dowsing Rods on the shelf at all times.

You have to posess the right 'Karma' for them t work.

The thing is... I believe the idea of dousing is that there be moving water. If these lines are out there, I don't have water running at the other end so nothing is moving. I've thought about cutting them as close as possible to a 'known location' and running a wire through them and doing a locate like that, but I doubt I'd get the wire very far before friction would stop it, or worse yet, it'd get caught, and I'd have a 'good line' with a wire clogging it up.

 

[WinterDeere]

See my post weeks above. Assuming poly pipe, you don't need a wire, just fill the line of interest with a brine solution, and connect your sounding transmitter to any nearby metal fitting. Brine isn't exactly super-conductive (10 S/m versus copper's 58 MS/m), but a sufficiently strong transmitter may propagate a signal far enough to get a sense of where that line is running.

 

[paulsharvey]

In all honesty, just start pot holing around the known locations (the waterers). Once you have a general direction, dig a slit trench across the running line every 50 ft to locate. It will likely become apparent how it was run, ie, off set from a fence 10 fr, or something. No replacement for manual labor on this one. Sure, we could suggest a GPR contractor, at $1500, but your Still going to need to hand dig it to confirm. If there Was a single, easy, affordable way to locate an unmapped utility, we wouldn't still be spending 6 hours spotting to do a 30 minute bore; But, that's exactly what is done, every day.

 

[paulsharvey]

Once you spot it once or twice, you'll have a good idea on how deep they went. It's unlikely that they did some at 30" and other parts at 48".

 

[paulsharvey]

Also, and I'm guessing you already tried; if it was installed in the late 90s to now; play with the GoogleEarth clock. You won't find the exact moment it was trenched, but you might see a different color in the grass on the aerial view. Costs nothing to try.

 

[LouNY]

I have seen witching work to often not to be open to it being very useful.
Two of my brothers can witch, I can not, I could be in the middle of a lake and the rods would be pointing up.
I have seen my brother located empty poly pipe when it wasn't even suspected to be some where's.
When I bought my current home it only had a dug well and I was desiring a drilled well as the existing well couldn't keep up with a household with 6 women in it during the late summer.
He was having difficulty in narrowing down a location in close proximity of the house. But just for xxxxx and grins we decided to check along the front side of the house which borders on a very steep slope away from the house.
His wires kept crossing were we suspected the main power and phone lines ran. But also at one location halfway down the side of the house were nothing really should have been. After repeated indications of something in a straight line from the house to out and over the bank. A couple of minutes with a shovel found a black poly pipe. A trip into the basement and a light bulb turned on there was a sump and a pump in the basement, the sump was dusty dry and the pump wasn't even hooked up. He had located the discharge line that was plumbed in for the not needed and unused pump.

 

[grsthegreat]

In our area, all water pipes are buried at least 5 feet underground due to frost lines.

 

[5030]

In our area, all water pipes are buried at least 5 feet underground due to frost lines.

Same here and I can locate them no issue with my copper dowsing rods. I can actually 'feel' them twitch before the move.