Hi, I'm Jessica, founder of WELLSPRING Groundwater Surveys.
My path into groundwater investigation wasn't academic; it was practical, experiential and self-directed. Formal education gave me the tools for learning. The Kootenays gave me an apprenticeship in living. Self-directed study taught me that my education didn't have to end with either one.
I spent years learning to work with rural land and water—troubleshooting water systems, developing springs, managing runoff, hauling water and living with the consequences of a 600-foot unsuccessful well. Today I bring that practical experience together with electrical resistivity surveying, mapping, well records and field evidence to investigate groundwater.
I'm not a geologist or hydrogeologist, and I don't present myself as one. I'm a curious, hardworking human who thrived off-grid in the bush for seven-years. I gather the available evidence, look for connections, ask questions and keep learning.
Spring water is precious because our 600ft bore-hole Well was "dry as a popcorn fart". Thinking back to 2017, when our well was drilled. I had arrived after the drilling had already begun. I asked how the location had been chosen. The answer was startlingly simple: “This is where the truck stopped.” We had only just arrived on the property and didn't even have a finished driveway yet. In fact, the driveway was being built while the drilling was underway so the rig would be able to get back out.
Six hundred feet later, we had a hole that didn't even supply 10Gl per day. For the years that followed, we relied on our water licence and hauled water from the creek to supply the homestead.
My partner spotted it first, he found a place in the newly excavated slope that was staying wet. we followed it, digging it out and developing small seasonal spring, it mattered. That was the best water I had in years. From there, we set a 5gl water jug in a hole we carved out if the rock, plumbed it to the house and were able to off-set our trip to the creek. That's the spring in these photographs. And the glass I'm holding is filled with water from it. We still use that spring seasonally today.
