Hi All,
First I'll provide a little background. I work for a government agency in Florida that regulates and monitors petroleum contamination cleanup. Part of the program is the sampling of monitor wells to determine the extent of petroleum contamination in the groundwater. Occasionally, a well becomes "lost", either from construction activities in the area, overgrowth (vacant lots, wooded areas, etc.),or other causes. These wells are made of special PVC, extend down into the groundwater and have metal (usually iron or steel) lids. When the companies that are hired to sample these wells cannot find them, the usual report that I receive is that the well has been "destroyed" and must be replaced. Replacing these wells runs an average of $3200. Yes, that's right, three thousand two hundred dollars of taxpayer money. Right out of your and my pocket. Now I don't know about you, but I hate to pay out that kind of bucks unless I really have to.
Being a Doubting-Thomas by nature, I felt that the vast majority of these wells could not have been destroyed, but were just "hiding" (buried). Anyway, today I received a call that two wells had been destroyed (couldn't be found-so they just HAD to have been destroyed)at a site that had recently had construction activities.
So I hopped into my (personal) car and off to the site I go. Now, I always have my trusty Sov GT in the trunk (you never know when a hunting opportunity will come up), and I also brought along a "utility locater" type of metal detector. To make a long story somewhat shorter, I fired up the GT in the All Metal Mode (remember, the well lids are iron) and went a hunting. The end result? I did find one of the wells buried a foot under the surface and confirmed that the other was in fact destroyed.
For the past year the score is : 14 wells reported as destroyed. Of these 3 were confirmed destroyed and I located the other 11 with my metal detector. I figure that, by combining my hobby with work, I've saved taxpayers all $35K. Now if I could just convince the public that I should get a "finders" fee on top of my meager government salary......
I did get an "attaboy" PLUS permission to hunt any county property I want. I'll take that.
HH,
Stirling, N5PIP
First I'll provide a little background. I work for a government agency in Florida that regulates and monitors petroleum contamination cleanup. Part of the program is the sampling of monitor wells to determine the extent of petroleum contamination in the groundwater. Occasionally, a well becomes "lost", either from construction activities in the area, overgrowth (vacant lots, wooded areas, etc.),or other causes. These wells are made of special PVC, extend down into the groundwater and have metal (usually iron or steel) lids. When the companies that are hired to sample these wells cannot find them, the usual report that I receive is that the well has been "destroyed" and must be replaced. Replacing these wells runs an average of $3200. Yes, that's right, three thousand two hundred dollars of taxpayer money. Right out of your and my pocket. Now I don't know about you, but I hate to pay out that kind of bucks unless I really have to.
Being a Doubting-Thomas by nature, I felt that the vast majority of these wells could not have been destroyed, but were just "hiding" (buried). Anyway, today I received a call that two wells had been destroyed (couldn't be found-so they just HAD to have been destroyed)at a site that had recently had construction activities.
So I hopped into my (personal) car and off to the site I go. Now, I always have my trusty Sov GT in the trunk (you never know when a hunting opportunity will come up), and I also brought along a "utility locater" type of metal detector. To make a long story somewhat shorter, I fired up the GT in the All Metal Mode (remember, the well lids are iron) and went a hunting. The end result? I did find one of the wells buried a foot under the surface and confirmed that the other was in fact destroyed.
For the past year the score is : 14 wells reported as destroyed. Of these 3 were confirmed destroyed and I located the other 11 with my metal detector. I figure that, by combining my hobby with work, I've saved taxpayers all $35K. Now if I could just convince the public that I should get a "finders" fee on top of my meager government salary......
I did get an "attaboy" PLUS permission to hunt any county property I want. I'll take that.
HH,
Stirling, N5PIP